PESHAWAR: An anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Haripur on Tuesday indicted 57 people arrested for involvement in the lynching of Mashal Khan, an Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan student, over blasphemy allegations.
The detained individuals were produced before ATC judge Fazle Subhan at Central Jail Haripur for hearing. The judge refused to accept bail applications of 17 of the accused and indicted 57 of the accused persons.
In July this year, the case was transferred to Abbottabad ATC from Mardan’s anti-terrorism court on the request of the victim’s father. Iqbal Khan, Mashal’s father, in his petition had also requested the PHC to pay his legal fees and urged the Supreme Court provide protection to his daughters, who haven’t been to school since Mashal’s murder.
Strict security measures were in place in the vicinity of Haripur jail where the trial was conducted and where the arrested men named in the case were presented before the ATC. A second hearing will take place Wednesday (today) in which the prosecution and defence will present their arguments. Mashal’s father, Iqbal Khan, will also appear before the court today. All those indicted in the case have pleaded not guilty. Mashal, a resident of Swabi and a student at Journalism and Mass Communication Department at the AKWUM, was shot dead and his body desecrated in broad daylight by his fellow students on campus on April 13 after being accused of blasphemy. The following day, the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government ordered a judicial inquiry into the lynching. A joint investigation team later submitted its report concluding that blasphemy charges could not be proved against Mashal and that his murder was pre-planned by people who included university employees as well.
Published in Daily Times, September 20th 2017.
