RAWALPINDI    -    Special judge of an anti-terrorism court on Mon­day ordered to hand over as many as 12 suspects, allegedly involved in an attack on General Head­quarters (GHQ) Rawalpindi on May 9, to the Paki­stan military for trial in a military court.

ATC Judge Hamid Hussain issued the order on the request of commanding officer of the Pakistan Army, Farhan Nazir Qureshi.

The commanding officer informed the court that four persons namely Ali Hussain, son of Khalil Ur Rehman, Lal Shah, son of Jahanzaib, Shehryar Zulfqar, son of Zulfiqar Ahmed and Far­had Khan, son of Shahid Hussain Khan involved in the FIR number 981/23 dated 9/5/2023 reg­istered at PS Civil Lines, Rawalpindi, who were sent to judicial lockup as they were found guilty of offences under sections 3,7 and 9 of Official Secrets Act, 1952 read with section 2(1)(d) of Pakistan Army Act, 1952 exclusively triable by military court.

Similarly, another military commanding officer Yasir Nawaz Cheema also informed the court that 8 other accused namely Muhammad Idrees, Umer Farooq, Raja Muhammad Ahsan, Muhammad Ab­dullah, Raja Danish, Hassan and Nadir are also in­volved in the May 9 riots and sought their custody for trial in a military court.

In his order, the court judge accepted the pleas of the military commanding officers and directed Superintendent Jail, Adiala, Rawalpindi, to hand over the custody of the required accused persons to Commanding Officers for further proceedings.

It may be noted that hundreds of PTI protes­tors, under the command of former law minis­ter Punjab Basharat Raja, former deputy speak­er Punjab Assembly Wasiq Qayyum Abbasi, ex-MPs Umer Tanvir Butt and Khalid Jadoon on May 9 had ransacked GHQ Gate Number 1 and other areas during protest against the arrest of PTI Chief Imran Khan in corruption case by NAB. Police had booked more than 700 persons in two cases lodged with police stations RA Ba­zaar and Civil Lines under multiple charges in­cluding terrorism act.