PESHAWAR: An accountability court here on Tuesday remanded a private bank manager in the NAB custody for 10 days for allegedly embezzling funds meant for payment of compensation to the militancy hit people of Bajaur Agency.

Judge Mohammad Asim Imam directed that the suspect, Mohammad Iqbal, arrested a day earlier, should again be produced before court on Nov 6. The prime suspects in the case, the then director general of Fata Disaster Management Authority (FDMA), Arshad Khan, and an assistant director, Irfanullah, have already been arrested in the case.

A NAB prosecutor, Hasnain Khan, told the court that the federal government had announced compensation for the affected people of Mohmand and Bajaur Agencies at the rate of Rs160,000 for partially damaged houses and Rs400,000 for completely damaged ones.

He said during the course of inquiry it was revealed that the suspect Mohammad Iqbal had put fake signatures on the bank account opening forms and opened hundreds of bogus accounts in the name of so-called affected people in the bank`s Khar branch, where he was a manager.

The NAB official added the suspect in connivance with the FDMA officials embezzled millions of rupees meant for the violence hit people.