An anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Tuesday granted bail to accused Muhammad Ajmal alias Akram Lahori, a leader of banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, involved in a 27 year old murder of renowned poet Mohsin Naqvi. The court ordered the accused to furnish surety bonds of Rs 500,000 for availing the relief of bail.
ATC Judge Muhammad Arshad Javed heard the post-arrest bail petition of the accused and announced the verdict after hearing detailed arguments of the parties.
The court had observed that other co-accused had already been granted bail in the matter, therefore, the benefit of bail was being extended to the accused in accordance with rule of consistency.
It is pertinent to mention here that Muhammad Ajmal remained behind the bars for 16 years due to his involvement in other murder cases. After the accused approached the court for bail in Mohsin Naqvi murder case, it was found that the record of the 26-year old case was missing.
The record was re-developed after getting old copies of the case from the police station.
Allama Iqbal Town police had registered the case against Muhammad Ajmal and other accused over murder of Mohsin Naqvi in 1996 whereas Counter-Terrorism Department officials had carried out the investigations.
