In a major development, the Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Rawalpindi on Saturday acquitted Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur and other PTI leaders in the case related to the attack on the Army General Headquarters. A non-bailable arrest warrant has been issued. GHQ) was destroyed during May 9 last year.
ATC judge Amjad Ali Shah ordered the Rawalpindi City Police Officer (CPO) to produce all the accused in court on December 10.
The warrant includes the names of PTI leaders Shibli Faraz, Shehryar Afridi, Zain Qureshi, Tahir Sadiq and Taimur Masood.
The development comes two days after jailed PTI founder Imran Khan along with dozens of other PTI activists were indicted in the GHQ attack case related to the May 9 violent protests.
A total of 100 people, including former interior minister Sheikh Rasheed, were charged in the GHQ attack case – which was registered at the RA Bazar police station. However, other accused, including Imran, denied the allegations against them.
More than 143 people including Khan were named as accused in the case while 23 people including Zulfi Bukhari, Shahbaz Gul and Murad Saeed were declared absconders. Moreover, all the accused have been banned from traveling abroad.
At least 70 PTI leaders were accused of planning the May 9 events and inciting activists and supporters to attack military and government installations after the arrest of the ousted prime minister by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB). .
After the arrest of ousted Prime Minister Khan in the 190 million pound settlement case on May 9, riots broke out almost all over the country. Hundreds of PTI activists and senior leaders were put behind bars last year for their involvement in violence and attacks on military installations.
During the protests, miscreants targeted civil and military installations, including Jinnah House and the General Headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi. The army declared May 9 as “Black Day” and decided to try the protesters under the Army Act.