HARIPUR, Pakistan: In what may be termed as a historic judgement in terms of misuse of blasphemy laws in Pakistan, an Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Haripur District on Wednesday awarded death sentence to one and life imprisonment to five others in Mashal Khan lynching case.
The Court headed by Justice Fazle Subhan also awarded four-year imprisonment to 25 accused and exonerated 26 others from the charges. Though the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government announced to challenge the acquittal of 26 accused.
The decision was announced in the Central Prison of Haripur amid tight security.
The Court ruled that there was no any concrete evidence against exonerated persons as they were found only standing in the mob or making videos and therefore were acquitted of charges.
Mashal Khan, a young student of Mass Communication Department of Abdul Wali Khan University, was attacked and murdered by a mob of students in the varsity campus on April 13, 2017 over charges of blasphemy.
However, joint investigation team (JTI) constituted by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government later cleared Mashal Khan of blasphemy charges.
The ATC reserved its verdict in the case on January 27, 2018. During the course of hearing, a total of 57 accused were presented by the prosecution.
It merits mention here that in the Mashal Khan murder case, a total of 61 persons were charged, out of which 58 were arrested. Out of 58 arrested persons, 57 were indicted under the charge while one was arrested in January 2018.
The accused who has been awarded death sentence is identified as Imran Sultal who fired at Mashal Khan ensuing in his death. Those who were awarded life imprisonment are Fazal-e-Raziq, Mujeebullah, Ashfaq Khan, Mubashar Bashir and Bilal Baksh. They were also fined Rs100,000 each.
Strict security arrangements were made at the time of announcement of judgment and army personnel were also deployed around the central prison to pre-empt any untoward happening.
Media men were not allowed to enter into the jail premises due to security concerns as a result newsmen faced difficulties in getting details of the judgment.
Aimal Khan, brother of Mashal Khan, while speaking to media demanded sentence for all the accused. He also demanded of the government to take measures for those suspects who have escaped and are at large.
Meanwhile, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader and a member of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assembly Shaukat Yousafzai told media persons that the provincial government would challenge acquittal in Mashal Khan case.
Source: DND/APP
