Lal Masjid clerics indicted in cops kidnapping case

A senior civil judge on Thursday indicted Maulana Abdul Aziz, his spouse and two other clerics of Lal Masjid in the kidnapping case of police officials.
Sheikh Mohammad Sohail, the senior civil judge (west), also directed the prosecution to produce more witnesses in the case and adjourned the matter till Friday.
According to the chargesheet prepared by the court, Maulana Aziz, his wife Ume Hassan, Maulana Afzal and Maulana Abdul Basir are facing the charges of kidnapping four police officials, obstructing them from performing their lawful duty and illegal use of loudspeaker to incite people.
After the indictment, the judge read out the charges against each of the accused in their presence.
The clerics, however, pleaded that they were not involved in the kidnapping nor had committed any illegal act.
Their contention was that the police had produced nine witnesses in the court and all of them belonged to the police department. The police recorded the statements of the witnesses but none of them deposed against the clerics, they said.
Contrary to the routine practice in similar cases, the court had already recorded the statements of the witnesses prior to indictment of the accused.
Wajihullah, the counsel for the clerics, told the court that since it (court) had closed recording the statements on December 22, 2012, the witnesses could not be summoned after framing the charges. He requested the court to pass an appropriate order on the basis of available evidence.
After advocate Wajihullah concluded the arguments, the court reserved its order.
The judge then took up other matters and after a couple of hours issued the direction to the prosecution for summoning more witnesses because the clerics had challenged the chargesheet and pleaded not guilty.
Advocate Wajihullah told Dawn that if the police produced more witnesses before the court to prove their case on Friday, the court would bring it to its record in accordance with the procedure. In case, the prosecution would not produce any witness, the court would announce the final judgment.
According to the FIR registered by the Aabpara police on May 18, 2007, the students of Jamia Faridia and Jamia Hafsa, at the behest of the clerics, kidnapped the police officials deployed near Lal Masjid and took them into the mosque.
The students raised the demand for the release of Khalid Khawaja, a former official of Inter Service Intelligence, and his other associates who were at that time in the custody of the law enforcement agencies.
The FIR also alleged that Maulana Aziz during a Friday sermon had warned of suicide attacks if the government launched an operation against Jamia Hafsa.

But Maulana Aziz told the judge that the police had leveled false allegations against him.
He said he was not behind the kidnapping of the police officials.