Suspected separatists: Printing press workers remanded into police custody
KARACHI: An anti-terrorism court remanded on Thursday three printing press workers into police custody on physical remand for allegedly publishing anti-state literature to de distributed in Balochistan.
The suspects, Adeel Ahmed, Raheel Ahmed and Majaz Ahmed, were arrested from a printing press in the Ranchore Lines area along with magazines containing hate-speech articles, the case investigating officer told the ATC-III judge, Saleem Raza Baloch.
According to the police, the suspects were linked to the banned militant group, the Baloch Liberation Front (BLF), a separatist organisation accused of carrying a guerilla war against the state in the southwestern province.
The papers submitted to the court read that the suspects were in contact with Dr Allah Nazar Baloch, a former Baloch politician who is now believed to be the chief of the BLF. Reports surfaced in mid-August this year, suggesting that Dr Baloch was killed in an intelligence-based operation in a remote part of the province. However, no independent sources have confirmed this.
The other big name in the FIR was that of Zahid Baloch, the chairperson of the Baloch Students Organisation (BSO) — Azad, who, according to his comrades, was captured by security agencies last year. The Azad faction of BSO was founded by Dr Baloch himself.
Dr Baloch, Zahid Baloch, Zakir Majeed Baloch, Shahmir Baloch, Imran Baloch and Tari Baloch were named absconders in the case registered under sections 121-A (conspiracy to commit offences such as waging or attempting to wage war or abetting war against Pakistan), 123-A (condemnation of the creation of the state and advocacy of the abolition of its sovereignty), 111 (liability of abettor when once act abetted and different acts done) of the Pakistan Penal Code, read with Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act.
The court handed the suspects over to police till October 29, seeking a progress report at the next hearing.
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