KARACHI: An anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Monday granted pre-arrest interim bail to four lawyers, including the acting general secretary of the Karachi Bar Association (KBA), in a case pertaining to the alleged assault on policemen at the Mominabad police station.

The court granted post-arrest bail to the fifth lawyer in the same case.

On April 26, the Mominabad police booked 14 named persons and 70-80 unidentified persons in an FIR. The police claimed that on Friday night, four individuals, who identified themselves as lawyers, arrived at the station for a person who was held in a case and demanded a copy of the registered FIR. The FIR stated that subsequently some of the lawyers became aggressive and then they called their accomplices, who allegedly assaulted an ASI and other policemen. It also claimed thatthe lawyers had locked the policeman, and filmed him and made the video go viral on social media.

On Monday, the investigating officer (IO) brought the lone held lawyer Muhammad Nadeem before the ATC judge-VI, while the four lawyers filed pre-arrest bail applications through their counsel, Abid Zaman, Osama Ali Gujjar, Mehboob Aziz, and others before the court.

After hearing the counsel and the IO, the court granted interim bail to four lawyers Aziz, Tahir Mehmood, Waqar Ahmed and Muzaffar Ali against surety bond of Rs50,000 each and fixed a date of May 10 for the confirmation or otherwise, while Advocate Nadeem managed to secure post-arrest bail against a surety bond of Rs10,000.

In its interim order, the court directed the IO to record the statement of the applicants within the premises of the ATC judicial complex and appear with the complete police paper before the court at the next hearing.