Waheed Murad, a journalist, received bail.

Journalist Waheed Murad was granted bail and ordered to be released by the District and Sessions Court on Friday.

He was given bail by the court in exchange for a Rs. 50,000 bond. However, the court lowered the bail to Rs20,000 at the petitioner’s request.

He was in custody of the FIA (Federal Investigation Agency) who produced him before Judicial Magistrate Abbas Shah following completion of his two-day physical remand. Murad was accused of “posting intimidating content” online, which led to his booking under the Cyber Crime Act.

His family had earlier filed a petition before the Islamabad High Court (IHC) for his recovery, saying that he was “forcibly disappeared by unknown” individuals from his house in the federal capital.

Murad’s mother-in-law filed the petition via attorneys Hadi Ali Chattha and Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir.

The FIA was asked by the Judge Shah what evidence had been gathered. According to Murad’s attorney, her client tweeted and referenced Akhtar Mengal.

Murad was then given post-arrest bail by the court.

The petition filed before the IHC stated that he was “forcibly disappeared from his home in Sector G-8, Islamabad on Wednesday at around 2:05 am by unknown officials presumably belonging to intelligence agencies, and accompanied by persons in black uniforms and two police double cabin vehicles”.

His mother-in-law, who is the petitioner, said she was an “eyewitness to the enforced disappearance [of Murad], and was also herself manhandled by the abductors who also took away her phone”.