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| Suspect in Bhutto's homecoming rally attack re-arrested | | | Karachi | Mar 27
Al Qaeda-linked militant leader Qari Saifullah Akhtar, accused by slain former Premier Benazir Bhutto of plotting a deadly attack on her homecoming rally in October last year, was re-arrested minutes after a Pakistani anti-terrorism court ordered his release for lack of evidence.
Akhtar, who headed the outlawed Harkatul Jihad al-Islami, was freed by the court yesterday after police said they had found no evidence linking him to the suicide attack on Bhutto's homecoming rally here which had left 140 people dead.
However, he was soon re-arrested under the Maintenance of Public Order law for 30 days, Karachi police chief Niaz Ahmed Siddiqi told. Akhtar, linked to al Qaida chief Osama bin Laden, had earlier been remanded to police custody on March 15 for 13 days.
Police had informed the anti-terrorism court that they had not found enough evidence to file a charge-sheet against Akhtar. The suspect too has denied involvement in the October 18 attack.
Under the Criminal Procedure Code, a person accused of a non-bailable offence, who is arrested without warrant, can be released on bail when he is produced in court. But such a person can be detained further if there are reasonable grounds for believing that he is guilty of an offence punishable with the death sentence or life imprisonment, police said.
Akhtar was earlier arrested along with his sons in Ferozwala near Lahore on February 26 and handed over to Sindh Police by the Punjab government on March 14.
The militant leader had also trained militants who were sent to Jammu and Kashmir during the 1990s. |
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