ISLAMABAD
Security agencies have released a Baloch student who was taken into custody in connection with a suicide blast at the University of Karachi (KU) on April 26, Baloch Council chairperson Ahsan Baloch told Dawn news on Tuesday.
Bebgar Imdad, a seventh-semester student at Numl in Islamabad and a native of Balochistan’s Kech area, was picked up by security agencies on April 27 from Punjab University (PU), where he was visiting a relative in hostel no.7.
Subsequently, Baloch Council activists had staged a sit-in outside the vice-chancellor’s office at PU, demanding Imdad’s release. Other civil rights activists also joined the chorus calling for the student’s release.
Ahsan Baloch said on Tuesday that they would now end the sit-in and planned to hold a press conference.
Earlier, a habeas corpus petition seeking Imdad’s recovery was filed by his cousin in the Lahore High Court, which was informed by the city police on Monday that the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) had arrested Imdad in connection with the KU blast. This was stated in a report that city police had submitted to the LHC on the court’s directives.
The report said PU chief security officer retired Colonel Abdullah was contacted by the Lahore police for verification of an application filed against the alleged abduction. However, the report added, the security officer confirmed the arrest of the student by the CTD.
The report said the security officer had assisted the police team in arresting Imdad.
At the hearing, counsel for the petitioner Asad Jamal, after going through the police report, had raised various legal questions on the arrest and transfer of Imdad from Lahore to Karachi. He said that not just the arrest of the student but his shifting to Karachi without seeking a transit remand from a court of law was also illegal.
According to sources privy to the development, the plea for Imdad’s release was withdrawn on Tuesday.
