- Taxila Police took Swati into custody following release from Attock Jail on bail
RAWALPINDI: The Anti-Terrorism Rawalpindi Court (ATC) on Tuesday remanded Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) leader Azam Swati into police custody for two-day a in a case pertaining to the party’s ‘violent’ protest at Islamabad’s D-Chowk.
Yesterday, PTI leader Azam Swati was rearrested following his release Attock Jail after the Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) Islamabad granted him bail in eight cases.
“As soon as Swati stepped out of Attock Jail, the Taxila Police took him into and shifted him to an undisclosed location”, his lawyers informed.
The ATC Islamabad had accepted bail plea of PTI leader Azam Swati in eight separate cases, ordering his immediate release. Judge Abul Hasanat Zul-Qarnain presided over the hearing, where both the prosecution, represented by Raja Naveed, and Swati’s defense lawyer, Sohail Advocate, presented their arguments regarding the bail applications linked to financial support for the D Chowk protest. Despite opposition from the prosecutor, the court accepted Swati’s post-arrest bail petition and granted him bail against surety of PKR 20,000 each case.
On Tuesday, the Taxila Police presented in ATC Rawalpindi where Judge Amjad Ali Shah heard the police plea, seeking a two-week physical remand of Azam Swati. The PTI leader’s counsel requested the court to discharge him from the case, terming the charges ‘baseless’ and ‘fabricated’.
After hearing arguments from both sides, the ATC judge sent Azam Swati on a two-day physical remand.
The Taxila police rearrested the PTI leader in a case registered under the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997.
Azam Swati was booked along with PTI founder Imran Khan, President Islamabad Aamir Masood Mughal Khan and others in several more cases related to protest at Islamabad’s D-Chowk,
In the case registered at Tarnol police station, 350 unidentified individuals have also been named, and the case has been filed under 13 different charges, including terrorism.
It is to be recalled that on November 27, last year, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had arrested Azam Swati, in a case related to ‘controversial’ tweets against state institutions.
