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ATC proceeds against May 9 suspects for not appearing

By Wajih Ahmad Sheikh

Copyright dawn

ATC proceeds against May 9 suspects for not appearing

LAHORE: An anti-terrorism court on Friday initiated proceedings against fashion designer Khadija Shah and other accused for their failure to appear in cases related to May 9 riots.

ATC-I Judge Manzer Ali Gill issued arrest warrants for eight accused in two separate cases — Jinnah House and Askari Tower attacks.

Ms Shah and other accused have not been appearing in the trial of these two cases against them following their conviction in other cases.

The judge issued arrest warrants for Imran and Faiza Azmat in the Jinnah House attack case while wa-rrants of arrests were issued for Usman, Ahmed Mursaleen, Hamza Sohail and Muhammad Khalid in the Askari Tower attack case. The judge further initiated proceedings to dec-l-a–re two other accused — Abdul Razzaq and Safdar — proclaimed offenders in the Jinnah House attack case.

Separately, an ATC extended the interim pre-arrest bail of PTI leaders Asad Umar, Azam Swati and sisters of Imran Khan — Aleema Khan and Uzma Khan — in different cases of May 9 riots.

Mr Asad and Mr Swati appeared before the court, but Aleema and Uzma Khan skipped the hearing as they were in Islam-abad.

Published in Dawn, September 20th, 2025