A local court on Friday approved the post-arrest bail application of journalist Waheed Murad - who was arrested under the Cyber Crime Act for allegedly sharing a social media post related to Balochistan.
Judicial Magistrate Abbas Shah, while hearing the case, inquired from the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) prosecutor about the evidence recovered against the journalist.
Murad’s lawyer Iman Mazari informed the court that her client had merely quoted and posted the words of Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M) leader Akhtar Mengal.
The FIA prosecutor, however, maintained that the post in question contained remarks about “Baloch genocide” and was linked to a banned organization.
After hearing arguments, the court approved Murad’s bail against a bond of Rs50,000.
Murad had been presented before the court two days earlier, when the judicial magistrate granted FIA a two-day physical remand for further investigation.
During the previous hearing, the journalist told the court that police forcibly entered his house and took him away.
He also claimed that his mother-in-law, a cancer patient who had arrived from Canada for treatment, was subjected to violence during the raid.
