ATC rejects poet Ahmed Farhad's bail petition

Court had a day back heard arguments from both sides before reserving its verdict on poet's bail plea

By Arif Urfi
June 04, 2024
Kashmiri poet Ahmed Farhad in this undated photo. — Facebook/AhmedFarhad.Official/File

An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Muzaffarabad on Tuesday rejected the bail petition of Kashmiri poet Ahmed Farhad a day after reserving its verdict.

The court, on Monday, heard arguments from both sides before reserving its decision.

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Speaking with journalists about the court's orders, the poet's wife Urooj Zainab said she will challenge the decision.

"Details of why the bail was rejected were not disclosed," she said addressing the press.

Farhad, known for his defiant prose, came into the spotlight after he went missing during recent protests in Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

The poet remained missing for 15 days before Attorney General for Pakistan, Mansoor Usman Awan, on May 29, told Islamabad High Court that Farhad was arrested and in AJK police's custody.

His wife, Urooj Zainab, said her husband was allegedly abducted from his house on May 14. Subsequently, she moved the Islamabad High Court (IHC) seeking her husband's recovery along with requesting the court to identify, investigate, and prosecute those responsible for his disappearance.

Just two days before the hearing of his bail plea, the ATC had ordered a medical examination of the poet amid concerns of slow poisoning.

Last week, the ATC ordered a medical examination of the poet by a team of doctors from the Abbas Institute of Medical Sciences.

The development came during the hearing of case involving Farhad whose counsel, Iman Mazari, requested the court to have the Kashmiri poet medically examined.

Mazari said that Farhad was transferred to Muzaffarabad from DhirKot under multiple sections of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA).

After the AGP informed court about poet's whereabouts, his family met him at the Kahori police station situated outside Muzaffarabad.

The IHC, last week, turned down the federal government’s plea to wrap up the poet's recovery case till he personally appeared in the hearing.

IHC's Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, while hearing the petition filed by the poet's wife, rejected the additional AGP's plea stressing that the case would be concluded on the day when Farhad is produced before the court.

The court will resume the hearing of the case on June 7.

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