Peshawar anti-terrorism court issues warrants for Sohail Afridi in Radio Pakistan case

An anti-terrorism court in Peshawar has issued arrest warrants for Sohail Afridi and other accused in the case registered over the attack on Radio Pakistan, Dunya News reported.

The report named Afridi but did not say how many warrants were issued, who the other accused are, when the order was passed or under which sections of law the accused are wanted. No statement from the court, the prosecution or Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police accompanied the report, and the case file was not made public.

Under Pakistani law an anti-terrorism court may issue warrants for an accused who does not appear before it, and such orders are routinely reported before a suspect is arrested or surrenders. It was not immediately known whether any of those named had been taken into custody.

The report did not carry a response from Afridi or from any of the other accused, and none of them could be reached for comment.

Radio Pakistan's Peshawar building was among the state installations attacked in May 2023, when protests spread across the country after the arrest of former prime minister Imran Khan. It was not clear from the report whether the warrants relate to that episode or to a separate incident.

The case has moved slowly through the anti-terrorism courts, and this is the latest procedural step in it. Skardu Times could not independently verify the warrants or establish the identity of the other accused.

A second report carried in the same news bundle, by The News International, was headlined "Court issues arrest warrant of CDA director" and appeared to concern a separate matter in the capital; the two could not be reconciled from the material available.