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Published 02 Sep, 2010 12:00am

Sialkot lynching case Former DPO, five subordinates sent on judicial remand

GUJRANWALA, Sept 1: The Anti-Terrorism Court-II on Wednesday sent former Sialkot district police officer Waqar Ahmad Chohan and five other policemen to jail on judicial remand for seven days.

The ATC ordered the police to submit charge-sheet against the accused within a week.

The accused are being proceeded against in connection with lynching of two brothers by a mob in the presence of police on August 15.

Earlier, the former DPO who had been put under house arrest was formally arrested by local police on Tuesday.

The police brought Mr Chohan to the ATC in Gujranwala by a private car early in the morning while the other five accused policemen -- Mohammad Yasin, Bashir Ahmad, Nazir Husain, Naseer Ahmad and Mohammad Akram -- were transported to the court in a prison van.

Judge Rana Nisar Ahmad ordered the police that all the accused should be again produced in the court on Sept 8.

It was stated that the former DPO was produced in the court without handcuffs while the other policemen were handcuffed.

A joint investigation team of police had registered a case against 28 nominated accused, 10 of them police officials, on Aug 20, in the light of the statements of witnesses.

The police later registered a case against the former DPO and half a dozen other police officials on Aug 31 on the report of one Zarar Butt, an uncle of the deceased brothers.

Sources said as many as 23 out of 28 nominated accused had been arrested so far while the remaining five, including former SHO concerned Rana Mohammad Ilyas, were at large.

Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, who had taken a suo motu notice of the lynching incident, expressed dismay at the escape of the former SHO from police custody and ordered his arrest till Thursday (today).

Chohan's Counsel Shahid Muzaffar Ali Khan requested the court to allot Class-B to the former DPO in the prison, but the court rejected his plea, saying only the jail superintendent had these powers.

Punjab Deputy Prosecutor General Rana Bukhtiar Ali was also present in the court.

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