Magistrate frees five BYC activists

A judicial magistrate on Monday discharged five Baloch activists in a case pertaining to blocking a road for traffic. The five men had been arrested a day earlier when police disrupted a protest of the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) near the Karachi Press Club.

Police produced BYC Central Deputy Organiser Wahab Baloch and other four activists – Aftab Shaukat, Imtiaz Ali, Attaullah Baloch and Saifuddin — before a District South judicial magistrate and sought their physical remand for interrogation.

After hearing arguments from the investigation officer (IO) and defence counsel, the magistrate discharged the arrested men under the Section 63 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) subject to submission of a Rs10,000 bond each and directed the IO to submit an investigation report within the stipulated time.

The FIR against the five men was lodged at the Artillery Maidan police station under the sections 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions), 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code on behalf of the state through ASI Mubarak Masih.