More than 500 suspected terrorist rejoin terror gruops

Islamabad: A majority of the nearly 2,000 suspected terrorists freed by Pakistani courts since 2007 have either joined terror groups or are involved in anti-state activities, a media report said on Saturday.

Thirty-three of those acquitted have been re-apprehended and are currently confined to jails and internment centres under the ‘Action in Aid in Civil Power Regulations 2011’, it said.

Since there is no legal cover for the detention after acquittal, sometimes the suspect is classified as a missing person, the report said.

This is not the first document that has highlighted the trend showing those acquitted returning to the activities they were suspected of at the first place.

According to a security agency report submitted to the Federal Review Board (a judicial body formed by the Supreme Court to examine the detention cases of suspects), the men accused of plotting attacks on former president Pervez Musharraf, the Danish Embassy, Surgeon General Mushtaq Baig and a military bus in Rawalpindi had re-joined the terrorist outfits after their acquittal.

It has repeatedly been reported that the weak prosecution and half-baked evidence led to the acquittal of hundreds of suspects, allegedly involved in high-profile terrorist activities.

If the suspects are detained over some suspicions, they are set free at the High Court level as most of the time intelligence agencies and police fail to produce credible evidence, the report said.