| "Nope. Nope. Never happened. Nope." |
One of the prime suspects of an aborted attempt on General Pervez Musharraf's life on April 26, 2002 on Shahra-e-Faisal, denied on Saturday before an ATC court that Harkatul Mujahideen Al-Alami men had planned the attack.
| "Nope. Nope. Wudn't us. Nope." |
Mohammad Kamran, alias Atif, in his statement admitted he was a member of Al-Alami, but denied the organisation was involved in terrorist activities.
| "We just get together on Thursdays to go bowling..." |
He said that the organisation was not involved in any kind of armed struggle within the territorial limits of Pakistan and had been waging jihad against the Russian occupation in Afghanistan and Indian forces in occupied Kashmir. Chief of Al-Alami Mohammad Imran, deputy chief Mohammad Hanif, and its members Mohammad Ashraf, Sahrib and Arslan Farooqi and a Rangers's inspector Waseem Akhtar were given jail terms of 10 to 14 years for planning to ram an explosive-packed vehicle into the president's motorcade on Shahra-e-Faisal. In his statement, Kamran said that the police had staged the drama of his arrest and injured him in the process just to claim Rs 3 million in bounty.
| "And they took my bowling ball, too!" |
Kamran stated that the police only formally declared his arrest after keeping him in detention for many months. He also denied that the police had recovered explosives from him or on his indication and said he had never rented or lived in Al-Mubashir Building in Bufferzone.
| "Matter of fact, I never even been to Pakistan!" |
Crime Investigation Department (CID) Police in May this year claimed to have arrested Kamran Atif after an encounter in which a passer-by was also killed.
| "Yeah, an' there wudn't nobody killed. And he wasn't just passin' by, either!" |
The CID also claimed to have recovered a huge quantity of rockets, rocket launchers, remote and phone devices and hand grenades from Al-Mubshir Building in Bufferzone on Kamran's indication. After the accused recorded his statement, Judge Haq Nawaz Baloch deferred further proceedings of the case till October 6, when the defence as well as state counsel will give their final arguments. |