MUZAFFARABAD: The under-arrest Kashmiri poet Ahmed Farhad Shah was brought to a health facility in Muzaffarabad on Saturday for his medical check-up hours after his counsel had made a plea to this effect to an anti-terrorism court, hearing his bail petition.

The petition was initially filed by local lawyer Syed Zulqarnain Naqvi on Thursday in the sessions court of Muzaffarabad, also the district’s anti-terrorism court.

However, it could not be taken up on Friday following an adjournment request by the police who said they had asked the government for appointment of a special prosecutor to represent them.

The case was fixed for Saturday for arguments and in the meanwhile, while additional advocate general Chaudhry Manzoor was appointed by the government as special prosecutor, the petitioners also replaced their counsel with hardliner Karam Dad Khan, aka K D Khan, Fazal Mahmud Baig and at least two dozen other local lawyers.

In his arguments before the anti-terrorism court, Mr Khan contended that the allegations in FIR number 205/24 registered in Saddar police station did not apply to Mr Shah because neither he was nominated in it nor he was physically present in Muzaffarabad at the time.

“How can my client instigate a mob in Muzaffarabad to commit any unlawful act when he was physically in Islamabad and there was no internet service in any part of Azad Kashmir,” he questioned, adding, Mr Shah was just a poet who critiqued the prevailing system in Pakistan through his poetry.

Lawyer Khan alleged that Mr Shah was kidnapped by the security agencies from his residence in Islamabad on May 15 and kept in wrongful detention until the morning of May 29, when he was dropped near the Gujjar Kohala police post only to be re-arrested by Dhirkot police on the basis of a forged FIR.

That same evening, he added, Mr Shah was transferred to Muzaffarabad to be connected with a slew of charges under another FIR.

Mr Khan argued that no offence had been committed by the petitioner and that the security agencies aimed to obstruct the proceedings initiated by the Islamabad High Court, which had ordered the personal appearance of top intelligence officials to explain the mechanism of their working following a writ petition filed by Mr Shah’s spouse.

He further argued that if any offence had indeed been committed by the petitioner, the FIR should have been lodged in Islamabad where the petitioner was present between May 10 and 15.

The prosecution sought time for its arguments which was granted by the court, fixing 11:30 am on Monday for next hearing.

Mr Khan had also drawn the attention of the court towards the deteriorating health condition of his client with a request for his medical examination by doctors from Abbas Institute of Medical Sciences (AIMS) rather than the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) where he was taken on Friday evening for check-up.

Witnesses said that Mr Shah was taken to AIMS at about 4pm, where some of his tests were conducted until 6:30pm. Lawyer Khan and Baig who also reached the hospital at about 6pm, alleged that Mr Shah was examined by a junior doctor and that too when his outspoken spouse raised hue and cry.

“We wanted him to be hospitalised owing to his critical condition but doctors could not muster up courage to admit him,” lawyer Baig said.

Mr Shah was accompanied by DSP Syed Ishtiaq Gillani, SHO Manzar Chughtai of P/S Saddar and SHO Liaquat Hameed of P/S Kahori, a village located some 10 kilometres on the outskirts of Muzaffarabad where Mr Shah is reportedly being kept.

Published in Dawn, June 2nd, 2024