ISLAMABAD     -    The Supreme Court of Pakistan Thursday granted bail to chief of the Haq Do Tehreek (HDT) Maulana Hi­dayatur Rehman, and ordered his release against two surety bonds of Rs0.3 million.

A three-member bench of the apex court headed by Justice Sardar Tariq Masood, and comprising Justice Aminuddin Khan and Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar conducted hear­ing of the bail petition of Maulana Hidayat.

During the hearing, Advocate Kamran Mur­taza, representing the HDT chief argued that his client was arrested from court premises. He added that his client has been incarcerated since December 2022. At this, Justice Tariq inquired; “Why didn’t you challenge the arrest from the court premises.” Murtaza re­plied that at the time of Rehman’s ar­rest, such actions had not been de­clared illegal by the apex court adding that the development happened follow­ing the arrest of Pakistan Tehreek-e-In­saf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan.

Balochistan Advocate General ar­gued that Rehman should not be grant­ed bail until the main accused, Majid Johar, is sent on judicial remand. Jus­tice Muhammad Ali Mazhar then ques­tioned whether “Rehman is accused of aiding and abetting the murder of a po­lice officer?”

The counsel replied that the facts will be determined during the trial, adding that his client’s movement was related to the provision of water for the peo­ple of Gwadar. He was arrested from Gwadar on January 13 on charges of murder. Later in January, he was hand­ed over to the crime branch police on a three-day physical remand by the an­ti-terrorism court.

Rehman who is also Balochistan gen­eral secretary of Jaamat-i-Islami (JI) was arrested in Gwadar on Jan 13 over charges stemming from the killing of a policeman by unidentified assailants on Dec 27, 2022, during the protests held by HDT supporters in December.

On December 22 last year, a po­lice constable was killed in Gwadar as clashes between the HDT activ­ists who had been protesting in the city for nearly two months with vari­ous demands including an end to ille­gal trawling in Gwadar’s water, setting up of a high number of security check­points and opening up of trade on the Pak-Iran border.

According to police spokesperson Aslam Khan, constable Yasir was shot in the neck after violence erupted during the protest at Hashmi Chowk. “He died on the spot.” Subsequent­ly, the police registered a first infor­mation report (FIR) against Hidayatur Rehman on charges of murder, attempt to murder, provoking the people for vi­olence and other charges.

The FIR was registered on Dec 30, 2022 and names three other people along with Rehman as responsible for the alleged charges. It claimed that Rehman had provoked and incited the people sitting there (at the protest site) to pelt stones at government vehicles, which allegedly resulted in the shatter­ing of car windows of a police officer along with other losses.

The movement advocating for the rights of the people of Gwadar was launched in November 2021, with Maulana Rehman at the forefront.