PAGAD leader Abdus-Salaam Ebrahim, who has been charged with the 1996 murder of gang boss Rashaad Staggie and several other crimes, is to remain behind bars for now. Ebrahim’s bail application which began on Thursday in the Cape Town Regional Court was on Friday postponed until February 8. Ebrahim has denied any wrongdoing, saying that the charges against him and other Pagad members have been trumped up. Ebrahim, an accomplished orator who testified for more than three hours, said it was not Pagad policy to kill or bomb anyone. He claimed a speeches he had made to Pagad supporters in which he had called for the heads of drug dealers were ”symbolic” and had to be ”viewed in context”. One journalist wryly observed his remarks could have come from the apartheid security police. Ebrahim said there was no evidence linking him to the murder of Staggie, who was shot and set alight by a Pagad mob. The state is vigorously opposing his bail application.