Muzaffarabad court rejects poet Ahmed Farhad's bail plea

• ATC had reserved its verdict a day earlier.
• Court earlier ordered his medical examination.
• Farhad remains in AJK police's custody.

MUZAFFARABAD: An anti-terrorism court in Muzaffarabad has rejected the bail petition of poet Ahmed Farhad.

The development comes a day after the court reserved its verdict after hearing arguments from both sides.

Speaking with journalists about the court's orders, the poet's wife Urooj Zainab said she will challenge the decision.

"Details of why the bail was rejected were not disclosed," she said addressing the press.

Just two days before the hearing of his bail plea, the ATC had ordered a medical examination of the poet amid concerns of slow poisoning.

Last week, the ATC ordered a medical examination of the poet by a team of doctors from the Abbas Institute of Medical Sciences.

The development came during the hearing of case involving Farhad whose counsel, Iman Mazari, requested the court to have the Kashmiri poet medically examined.

Mazari said that Farhad was transferred to Muzaffarabad from DhirKot under multiple sections of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA).

Farhad, known for his defiant prose, came into the spotlight after he went missing during recent protests in Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

His wife, Urooj Zainab, said her husband was allegedly abducted from his house on May 14. Subsequently, she moved the Islamabad High Court (IHC) seeking her husband's recovery along with requesting the court to identify, investigate, and prosecute those responsible for his disappearance.

The poet remained missing for 15 days before Attorney General for Pakistan, Mansoor Usman Awan, on May 29, in response to IHC's directions to recover the missing poet, said Farhad was arrested and in AJK police's custody.

Following the development, the poet's family met him at the Kahori police station situated outside Muzaffarabad.

The IHC, last week, turned down the federal government’s plea to wrap up the poet's recovery case till he personally appeared in the hearing.

IHC's Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, while hearing the petition filed by the poet's wife, rejected the additional AGP's plea stressing that the case would be concluded on the day when Farhad is produced before the court.

The court will resume the hearing of the case on June 7.