KARACHI: A judicial magistrate on Sunday remanded Karachi University professor Dr Riaz Ahmed to jail. A case had been registered against him on the complaint of a Rangers officer who claimed that he had found an unlicensed loaded Stoeger Cougar 8000F pistol from Dr Ahmed’s car. The KU professor and two others, his retired colleague Mehar Afroze Murad and a Democratic Students Federation activist Naghma Iqtidar, were arrested from near the Karachi Press Club. The other two were later released. They were going to address a press conference for the release of their teacher, Dr Hasan Zafar Arif, who is a leader of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement – London, currently incarcerated in a number of cases. Dr Arif has been accused of facilitating and praising ‘incendiary and hateful’ speeches of his party chief. He faces a trial under the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1998. Dr Riaz was presented before a District South judicial magistrate on Sunday, Artillery Maidan Police Station’s head muharrar Shahzad said. The judge sent the suspect to jail and directed the police to submit investigation report on the next hearing, he said. Meanwhile, civil society and human rights activists staged a protest demonstration outside the press club demanding the release of Dr Riaz. The protesters chanted slogans in favour of freedom of speech and termed the arrest an oppressive act. The Karachi University Teachers’ Society also reacted to the arrest in condemnation and demanded that the detained professor be released immediately. “The teachers are being implicated in fake cases. This cannot be tolerated at all,” a statement said. “In a civilized society, not only there should be a freedom of expression but also that there should a struggle against lawlessness and injustice. If Dr Riaz is not released immediately, then the teacher’s fraternity will resort to country wide protests,” it said. Karachi University Teachers Society (KUTS) president Dr Shakeel Farooqi has also demanded his immediate release. “In a civilized society, right of freedom of speech must be practiced and we demand the immediate release of the KU faculty members,” he said.