JUI-F Islamabad chief Awais Aziz gets 15-day physical remand in terror case

ISLAMABAD: An anti-terrorism court in Islamabad has approved a 15-day physical remand of Maulana Awais Aziz, Islamabad chief of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (F).

Judge Abul Hasanat Muhammad Zulqarnain heard the case. Senator Kamran Murtaza, counsel for Maulana Awais Aziz, appeared before the court.

Patriotic citizens are also being booked under terrorism provisions, Murtaza said. ‘We are loyal to the Constitution of Pakistan, and not a single straw was broken during the entire event.’ He added that the police had registered the FIR three days late, after the incident.

Prosecutor Raja Naveed Hussain told the court that people had been urged to block the GT Road during the event, residents were confined to their homes and fear was spread.

Murtaza asked where the people allegedly incited were, and where the statements of those said to have been told to confine residents to their homes were. He also asked where the evidence was for the broken windscreens of a government vehicle that had been mentioned.

He argued that if evidence existed, the court should grant the remand; otherwise, he said, it amounted to a violation of human rights. He said a man who leads prayers in a mosque and teaches the Holy Quran had been turned into a ‘terrorist’.

The prosecutor said further investigation was required and sought a 30-day remand. The court approved a 15-day physical remand for Awais Aziz.

A case has been registered against Maulana Awais Aziz under terrorism provisions at Sangjani police station.