PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Saturday suspended the sentences of three suspected militants and ordered their release on bail.

Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim of a single-member bench granted bail to two of the convicts, including Abdullah and Shahnawaz of Kurram tribal district, and ordered them to submit surety bonds of Rs 200,000 each.

Justice Syed Afsar Shah of another bench granted bail to another convict, Ziaul Haq of Bara area of Khyber tribal district, on the condition of furnishing two surety bonds of Rs200,000 each.

Both benches issued notices to the government declaring that the main appeals filed by the three appellants against their conviction would be heard later.

Shabbir Hussain Gigyani, lawyer for the appellants, said his clients were convicted under the erstwhile Frontier Crimes Regulation by the respective assistant political agents without evidence and that every one of them was sentenced to seven years imprisonment.

He insisted that facts of the three cases were almost identical as the appellants were taken into custody by the security forces few years ago before being handed over to the tribal administrations concerned.

The lawyer said the joint investigation team’s reports had accused the appellants of having links with the proscribed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan and waging war against security forces and the state.

He said the so-called elder councils hadn’t recorded any evidence against his clients.

The lawyer insisted that the appellants were convicted solely on the basis of JIT reports wherein they were placed in the ‘grey’ category.

He said there were no specific terrorism-related allegations against his clients and that the trial courts headed by the administrative officers had erred in convicting them.

Published in Dawn, May 5th, 2019