Lahore; January-February, 2024: A case was registered against Mr. Rohan Ahmad and other elders of the Ahmadiyya Community on May 26, 2020, at FIA Police Station Lahore in case number 29, under PPCs 295-B, 298-C, 120 B, 109, 34, and 11-PECA. Mr Rohan Ahmad was subsequently arrested. Malik Usman Ahmad and Hafiz Tariq Shahzad were arrested on September 30, 2020. Later, on June 29, 2021, the PPC 295-C was added to the case, on demand of the complainant.
The bail application of the accused was rejected by the Supreme Court’s three–member bench (Mr. Justice Mazhar Alam, Mr. Justice khan Miankhail, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhel) on April 27, 2022. Later, on February 22, 2023, the three-member bench rejected the review petition and directed the High Court to determine whether the offenses (295-C, 295-B, 298-C) imposed by the FIA fall within the jurisdiction of the FIA or not..
Mr. Rohan Ahmad, after spending more than two years in custody, filed a bail application on Statutory Grounds in the Lahore High Court. The application was rejected by Justice Muhammad Amjad Rafiq on June 8, 2023, without even hearing the argument of the defendant’s lawyer, Advocate Usman Kareemuddin. An appeal was then filed in the Supreme Court of Pakistan against this decision. On November 15, 2023, the designated bench of the Supreme Court of Pakistan asked reports from the High Court and Sessions Court in reference to this case.
The Supreme Court finally granted his bail on January 15, 2024. Before his release, the FIA re-arrested Mr. Rohan Ahmad from Camp Jail Lahore and registered a new case under FIR No: 11 on January 23, 2024 under 295-A, 295-B, 298-C, 109, 34, PECA-11. He was presented the next day before a court for physical remand but the court dismissed this newly registered case, after hearing the argument of defendant’s lawyers.
Upon this, the FIA then added two more sections PPC 295-C and PECA-26 to the newly registered case on February 2, 2024, and once again took Mr. Rohan Ahmad into custody from Camp Jail Lahore. The next day, he was again presented before the court for physical remand. The defendant’s lawyers then presented their argument; the court thereby dismissed the newly added sections, and he was released on bail the same day—after remaining in prison for three years and nine months. However, the other two accused, Malik Usman Ahmad and Hafiz Tariq Shahzad, are still incarcerated.
The opponents have filed Writ Petition against the dismissal of the newly registered case in High Court while the trial of the previous case is ongoing in the court of Additional Sessions Judge Lahore, Naveed Anjum Saleemi.
