Capt (r) Safdar released on bail hours after arrest

Hours after his arrest, retired Captain Mohammad Safdar was granted bail on Monday by a judicial magistrate against surety bonds of Rs100,000 in Karachi.

The development was also announced earlier by PML-N vicepresident Maryam Nawaz in a press conference, where she was accompanied by JUI-F chief Fazlur Rehman, PPP leader Raja Pervaiz Ashraf and other political leaders. "[Safdar] and I will be leaving Karachi together because just now Marriyum Aurangzeb has told me that he has been granted bail," Maryam said.

Maryam had tweeted early Monday morning that her husband retired Captain Mohammad Safdar had been arrested by the police from their hotel in Karachi. "Police broke my room door at the hotel I was staying at in Karachi and arrested Capt Safdar," Maryam said via tweet.

According to Maryam, she was sleeping when the police allegedly "barged in".PTI minister Ali Zaidi, however, refuted her claim, saying "Maryam [is] once again lying that the hotel door was broken."

The PML-N leader was being kept at the Aziz Bhatti police station and was later produced before the City Courts, where the police asked the judge to grant physical remand of Safdar. Meanwhile, Safdar had moved the court to secure a postarrest bail. The atmosphere outside the courtroom was charged as supporters of PML-N and PTI, who had gathered outside for Safadr's hearing, chanted slogans against each other.

He was arrested a day after he raised slogans at the Quaid's mausoleum before the Pakistan Democratic Movement's (PDM) second power show at Bagh-i-Jinnah. A first information report (FIR) was registered against Maryam, Safdar and 200 others for violating the sanctity of the Quaid's mausoleum. The complainant, Waqas Ahmed, alleged that the PML-N leaders, along with 200 of their followers, reached the Quaid's grave where Safdar jumped over the grill surrounding it.

The complainant said that he tried to stop him from doing so but Safdar "got out of control" and started threatening him and his fellows that he would kill them. He added that Safdar later damaged government property before leaving the site with his followers.

"My complaint is that Safdar and his cohort violated the sanctity of the Quaid's mausoleum and his grave. A case [should be] registered against him for raising political slogans inside the mausoleum complex, death threats against me and for damaging government property." According to the FIR, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, a case has been registered on Section 6, Section 8 and Section 10 of The Quaid-i-Azam's Mazar (Protection and Maintenance) Ordinance, 1971.