Anti-Terrorism Court’s Remand Decision
An anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Saturday remanded an officer of the Counter-Terrorism Department and six other suspects in custody for four days. This was decided following a hearing where all parties were present, including Haris (Ashar), Mohammed Rizwan Shah, Tariq Hasan Shah (Amir), Muzamil Raza, Umer Jilani, Umer Irshad and Noman Riffat before the administrative judge.
The investigation officer (IO) provided insight into his case: “I need their custody for 14 days to check their criminal records and arrest remaining suspects.” Following this request, upon IO’s appeal at court session today, they remanded these individuals in police custody as requested but reduced the timeframe by ten days.
Upon further discussion about progress on future arrests within four days’ timeline set forth for initial investigation of their alleged involvement in a kidnapping-for-ransom case against a cryptocurrency trader, they were remanded back to custody but with an additional day added due to court scheduling issues.
The IO then conveyed that the suspects had abducted and ransomed off a crypto currency trader for $340,000 (representing a significant sum in today’s market). The said amount was transferred into various accounts after accessing his Binance account during their encounter.
The complainant mentioned that they had not sold or purchased dollars but were approached by Hamid who asked them to arrange money for him instead, leading up to the suspects’ arrival at Arsalan’s office in Saima Arabian Villas under false pretenses of a dollar transaction.
During their encounter on Dec 24th after avoiding direct confrontation and evasion by Hamid earlier that day, they were persuaded into meeting with Ashar (Muzamil), Amir (Amir), and Zohaib who arrived at the office in a vehicle identified as Suzuki Alto.
The IO shared how he had asked for 30,000 dollars but received no response from the suspects during which they demanded payment through Ashar’s arrival promising to settle money via video call with someone on his cell phone at around midnight Dec 25th. After some time spent away and a brief conversation by their host Arsalan (to this day unidentified), four plain clothes officers arrived in another vehicle without number plates, which led to the abduction of Arsalan himself from near FIA Saddar office around dawn on Dec 25th.
The court session concluded with IO’s request for a review at next hearing as they aimed to apprehend suspect Muzamil and Zaman (Zohaib) along with the rest, who had yet to be identified fully due their extensive efforts in maintaining anonymity from investigators so far.
Dawn of January 5th, 2025.