Islamabad: An antivterrorism court in Peshawar on Wednesday reissued arrest warrants for former Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister Sohail Afridi and Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI) activist Amir Khan Chamkani in connection with the May 9, 2023, attack on the Radio Pakistan building.
Judge Wali Muhammad Khan issued the orders during a hearing of the case, while extending interim pre arrest bail for PTI leaders Taimur Saleem Jhagra, Kamran Bangash and Irfan Saleem. The court adjourned further proceedings until November 17.
The case relates to the attack on the Radio Pakistan building in Peshawar during protests that followed the arrest of former prime minister Imran Khan on May 9, 2023. The building was vandalised and set on fire during the unrest.
Afridi and four other PTI figures were subsequently named in a supplementary charge sheet submitted by police as part of the investigation. The prosecution has relied on video footage, photographs and forensic identification reports to support the inclusion of the accused. The defence has previously disputed the identification of individuals in the footage and the connection of some recordings to the incident.
Proceedings continue over May 9 violence
The court had initially issued arrest warrants for Afridi and four other PTI leaders in October after investigators submitted the supplementary charge sheet.Three of the accused, Jhagra, Bangash and Saleem, later obtained interim pre arrest bail, allowing them protection from arrest while their applications remained under consideration.
At a hearing on November 4, the court extended their bail and directed further proceedings after Afridi and Chamkani failed to appear.
Their counsel had previously claimed that Afridi's whereabouts were unknown following his reported detention after the imposition of emergency and governor's rule in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on October 11. The lawyer also alleged that Chamkani had been detained or abducted by unidentified individuals.
Those claims have not been independently established in the court proceedings reported so far. The case forms part of the legal proceedings arising from the May 2023 unrest, during which attacks on public buildings and other properties led to investigations and prosecutions of PTI workers and leaders.
The latest orders leave the arrest warrants against Afridi and Chamkani in place, while the three other accused retain interim bail until the next hearing. The allegations remain subject to judicial determination, and the issuance of arrest warrants does not constitute a finding of guilt.
