KARACHI, Jan 7: Most of the 46 accused arrested by police for rioting, arson and looting in the wake of disturbances that followed the assassination of PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto were released on personal bonds on Monday.

Investigation officers of the Gizri, Boat Basin, Clifton and Gadap police stations informed the administrative judge of Karachi’s anti-terrorism court that they had failed to find reliable evidence linking the arrested and remanded accused with the commission of offences they were alleged to have committed despite ‘diligent’ interrogation and inquiry.

They were booked under provisions of the Anti-Terrorist Act along with those of the Pakistan Penal Code. Efforts were on to find the real culprits, they said in their interim reports.

The administrative judge, Justice Khwaja Naveed Ahmed of the Sindh High Court, ordered release of the accused on personal bonds amounting to Rs50,000 each pending the final police report due on Jan 17. They were asked to attend the court on that date when those who were finally found innocent would be discharged.

The remand of the two accused arrested for ransacking a factory was extended to facilitate their identification. The judicial magistrate was asked to hold an identification parade with the help of any eye-witness and not necessarily the two injured employees of the factory who named them

An accused complained that he had come from Hyderabad to purchase computers. He was carrying his processors and monitors along with the receipt issued by the seller when he was caught by police. The computers were shown to have been looted by and recovered from him despite the receipt. One of the detainees was found to be mentally retarded and was discharged by the Boat Basin police itself.

Three accused caught torching vehicles were remanded to jail custody.

Lawyers present in the courtroom were amused when the judge read out the interim reports highlighting the police efforts to dig out information and ascertain the culpability of the accused. One investigation officer described routine information about the vocation and address of the accused as ‘revelation’.

The remand of the seven accused alleged to have attacked the Gadap police station was extended till Jan 15. According to police, they were part of an over 2,000-strong crowd which besieged the police station and took away arms and ammunition. The investigation officer said pieces of stolen ammunition had been recovered and physical custody of the accused was required to make more arrests and recoveries.

Forty-six accused were remanded to police custody for seven days on Jan 1. They were produced before the administrative judge on the expiry of the remand along with interim investigation reports. None of the accused complained of maltreatment during custody.

Seven sent to jail

Meanwhile, Judicial Magistrate, West, Aurangzeb Shah on Monday remanded seven workers of the Pakistan People’s Party in jail custody till Jan 18. They were charged with looting and damaging public and private property during the violence that broke out in the city on Dec 27.

The workers, Ismail, Gul Mohammad, Abdul Aziz, Hayat, Khursheed, Abdul Qayyum, Shah Hussain and Farman, were booked by the Mauripur police under sections 147, 148, 149, 395 and 353 of the Pakistan Penal Code.