Journalist Waheed Murad granted bail
Pakistan
The court granted Murad bail against a bond of Rs50,000
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – The District and Sessions Court on Friday granted bail to journalist Waheed Murad and ordered his release.
The court granted him bail against a bond of Rs50,000. However, on the petitioner’s request, the court reduced the bond to Rs20,000.
He was in custody of the FIA (Federal Investigation Agency) who produced him before Judicial Magistrate Abbas Shah following completion of his two-day physical remand. Murad was booked under the Cyber Crime Act for allegedly “posting intimidating content” online.
His family had earlier filed a petition before the Islamabad High Court (IHC) for his recovery, saying that he was “forcibly disappeared by unknown” individuals from his house in the federal capital.
The petition was filed by Murad’s mother-in-law through lawyers Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir and Hadi Ali Chattha.
The magistrate Shah asked the FIA what evidence has been collected. Murad’s counsel said her client quoted and posted a tweet of Akhtar Mengal.
The court then granted Murad post-arrest bail.
The petition filed before the IHC stated that he was “forcibly disappeared from his home in Sector G-8, Islamabad on Wednesday at around 2:05 am by unknown officials presumably belonging to intelligence agencies, and accompanied by persons in black uniforms and two police double cabin vehicles”.
His mother-in-law, who is the petitioner, said she was an “eyewitness to the enforced disappearance [of Murad], and was also herself manhandled by the abductors who also took away her phone”.
