{"id":73317,"date":"2024-03-20T11:04:52","date_gmt":"2024-03-20T11:04:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/may-9-riots-how-is-carrying-out-rallies-akin-to-terrorism-asks-justice-mandokhail\/"},"modified":"2024-03-20T11:04:52","modified_gmt":"2024-03-20T11:04:52","slug":"may-9-riots-how-is-carrying-out-rallies-akin-to-terrorism-asks-justice-mandokhail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/may-9-riots-how-is-carrying-out-rallies-akin-to-terrorism-asks-justice-mandokhail\/","title":{"rendered":"May 9 riots: How is carrying out rallies akin to terrorism, asks Justice Mandokhail"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\n<p>As the Supreme Court on Wednesday granted bail to five suspects detained in a case pertaining to the May 9 attacks, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail wondered how carrying out rallies was equivalent to terrorism.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1752254\">Countrywide protests<\/a> had erupted on May 9 last year after the paramilitary Rangers <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1751782\/imran-khan-arrested-from-ihc-court-reserves-verdict-on-legality-of-arrest\">whisked away<\/a> former prime minister Imran Khan from the Islamabad High Court in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1751790\/imran-arrest-what-is-the-al-qadir-trust-case\">\u00a3190m corruption case<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>While the protests were under way, social media was flooded with footage of rioting and vandalism at various spots, including the Lahore Corps Commander\u2019s residence and General Headquarters, the army\u2019s head office in Rawalpindi.<\/p>\n<p>In August last year, the Rawalpindi police <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1772006\">added<\/a> section 21(1) of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) to three first information reports (FIRs) registered in the wake of attacks on military installations.<\/p>\n<p>The next month, they <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1774467\/36-pti-activists-arrested-again-in-rawalpindi-despite-getting-bail\">arrested<\/a> 36 PTI activists and detained them in the Adiala jail under Section 16 of the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) despite the Lahore High Court (LHC) granting them bail.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media  sm:w-1\/2  w-full  media--right  media--embed  media--uneven\">\n<p>    <iframe class=\"nk-iframe\" onload=\"setInterval(()=&gt;{try{this.style.height=this.contentWindow.document.body.scrollHeight+'px';}catch{}}, 100)\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"height:400px;position:relative\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/card\/1774467\" sandbox=\"allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-popups allow-modals allow-forms\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>The city police have so far detained as many as 230 suspects in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1756576\">GHQ attack case<\/a>, including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1804629\">Imran<\/a> and former foreign minister <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1801224\">Shah Mahmood Qureshi<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>They have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1774467\">nominated<\/a> around 150 unknown suspects in the Hamza Camp attack and another 100 in the Museum attack case.<\/p>\n<p>Today, a three-member bench \u2014 led by Justice Mandokhail and including Justices Hasan Azhar Rizvi and Musarrat Hilali \u2014 took up a bail petition of suspects involved in a case filed by the New Town police for the Hamza Camp attack.<\/p>\n<p>Sardar Abdul Razzaq appeared as the counsel for the petitioners while the investigation officer (IO) and the Punjab government\u2019s lawyer were also present.<\/p>\n<p>During the hearing, Justice Mandokhail asked, \u201cHow is carrying out rallies [equivalent to] terrorism?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The bench censured the police and the prosecution for their poor investigation of the case.<\/p>\n<h2><a id=\"the-hearing\" href=\"#the-hearing\" class=\"heading-permalink\" aria-hidden=\"true\" title=\"Permalink\"\/>The hearing<\/h2>\n<p>At the outset of the hearing, Justice Mandokhail asked, \u201cIs carrying out rallies or being a worker of a political party a crime?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Observing that banning student unions and political parties had resulted in \u201cthis destruction\u201d, he asked: \u201cShould we accept a former prime minister as a traitor based on the statement of a head constable?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHave some fear of God. Where are we heading?\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Here, Justice Rizvi asked what evidence was present against the suspects and whether they had been identified from the CCTV footage.<\/p>\n<p>The IO replied, \u201cThe protestors had broken the [CCTV] cameras of the venues, including the Hamza Camp.\u201d Justice Mandokhail then noted, \u201cThis means there is no evidence against the suspects; only the police statements.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The judge went on to ask the reason for including terror charges in the cases, to which the Punjab government lawyer replied that the suspects had \u201cattacked\u201d a camp of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).<\/p>\n<p>Here, Justice Mandokhail remarked, \u201cThen you do not even know what terrorism is. Terrorism took place in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1734887\">Army Public School Peshawar<\/a> incident and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/233464\/judge-14-others-killed-in-quetta-suicide-attack\">Quetta court<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow is carrying out rallies [equivalent to] terrorism?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n<p>The Punjab counsel informed the court that a head constable of the Lahore Special Branch was also a \u201cwitness\u201d in the case, at which Justice Mandokhail remarked, \u201cThe incident took place in Rawalpindi and the witness is from Lahore?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIs it a huge crime to burn a tyre [in protest] against the government?\u201d the judge wondered. He observed that the government and the state had the \u201cimportance of one\u2019s parents\u201d, adding, \u201cIf parents slap their children, they later convince them, not kill them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDetaining everyone is not the solution to the problem,\u201d he asserted.<\/p>\n<p>Justice Rizvi then noted that there was no other evidence than the police testimony. The IO informed the court that first the case was registered and then the suspects were arrested, at which Justice Mandokhail asked how the names of the suspects were known before their arrest.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe police themselves damage the entire case,\u201d the judge remarked.<\/p>\n<p>Here, petitioner\u2019s lawyer Razzaq said his clients were returning to their homes after closing their shops and \u201cgot stuck while on their way\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Justice Hilali noted that the FIR did not mention any attack on an ISI office, adding that \u201csensitive installations are many\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Justice Rizvi then said, \u201cCCTV recordings are safe. People also make videos from their mobile phones.\u201d The Punjab counsel then claimed, \u201cPetrol bombs have been recovered from the suspects. There is also the allegation of firing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At this, Justice Rizvi asked, \u201cWho brought the petrol bombs and from where? One cannot bring them from their homes. What does the investigation say?\u201d The lawyer responded that the probe \u201cdid not reveal this aspect\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Justice Rizvi then noted, \u201cThe suspects are also alleged of firing [but] neither were any arms recovered nor were the police injured.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Justice Mandokhail then remarked, \u201cThe investigation officer is concocting stories on his own.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Subsequently, the SC approved the petitioners\u2019 bail pleas against surety bonds worth Rs50,000.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As the Supreme Court on Wednesday granted bail to five suspects detained in a case pertaining to the May 9 attacks, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail wondered how carrying out rallies was equivalent to terrorism. Countrywide protests had erupted on May 9 last year after the paramilitary Rangers whisked away former prime minister Imran Khan from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73318,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2024\/03\/20131526582a631.png?r=133918","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}