PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday upheld the conviction by anti-terrorism courts of 33 people accused of lynching Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan student Mashal Khan in 2017.

It, however, converted the death penalty awarded to a prime accused into life imprisonment.

A bench consisting of Justice Lal Jan Khattak and Justice Syed Mohammad Attique Shah also upheld the acquittal of 28 accused in the case by trial courts by rejecting appeals of the provincial government and Mashal’s father, Mohammad Iqbal.

Sixty-one accused were tried but the anti-terrorism courts had handed down death sentence only to the prime accused, Imran Ali, who was charged with firing at the student. Seven of the accused were awarded life imprisonment and 25 three years imprisonment on account of lynching, while the remaining 28 were acquitted.

The bench also recalled the bail granted by the Abbottabad high court bench in 2018 to the 25 convicts, who were sentenced to three years imprisonment, and ordered their arrest.

It, however, turned down appeals of the government and the deceased’s father, Mohammad Iqbal, for the enhancement of sentences awarded to 25 convicts.

Converts death sentence of prime accused into life imprisonment

The bench had reserved its judgment on Sept 29 over scores of appeals against two judgments of the anti-terrorism courts related to the conviction and acquittal of the accused. It pronounced its order on Thursday.

The bench had held marathon hearings for many days into dozens of appeals filed by the provincial government, Iqbal Khan and 33 of the convicts.

Multiple appeals were filed by the KP government and Mohammad Iqbal seeking setting aside of the acquittal of 28 of the accused, enhancing of sentences of 25 of the convicts, who were awarded three years imprisonment, and increasing of sentence of seven other convicts, who were sentenced to life imprisonment.

Similarly, appeals were filed by the prime accused and other convicts.

Mashal Khan, a 23-year-old student of the Department of Mass Communication at the Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, was lynched by a mob over the allegation of blasphemy on Apr 13, 2017.

Some fellow students and employees of the university had leveled the said allegations. However, a joint investigation team and anti-terrorism court had declared that the blasphemy allegation was unfounded.

On Feb 7, 2018, an anti-terrorism court had convicted 31 of the 57 accused, who had initially faced trial in the lynching case, awarding death sentence to the prime accused, life imprisonment to five of them, including Bilal Bakhsh, Fazal-i-Raziq, Mujeebullah, Ishfaq Khan and Mudassir Bashir, and three years’ imprisonment to 25 others.

However, the ATC, which had conducted trial inside the Haripur Central Prison, had acquitted 26 of the accused observing that the prosecution failed to prove the charges against them.

The court ruled that 13 of the accused, who faced trial were employees of AWKU and all of them had actively participated in the student lynching.

The trial court had also issued perpetual warrants for the arrest of four of the absconding accused, including tehsil councillor of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Arif Khan, office assistant of the university Asad Zia alias Asad Katlang and students Izharullah alias Joni and Sabirullah alias Sabir Mayar.

The four absconders were later on arrested and tried by another ATC in Peshawar. During that trial, the court on Mar 21, 2019, convicted Arif and Asad and sentenced them on multiple counts to life imprisonment with fine of Rs300,000 each. The two other accused were acquitted.

The provincial government had appointed Barrister Amirullah Khan Chamkani as special prosecutor in these appeals who was assisted by additional advocates general Nisar Khan and Mujahid Ali Khan. Advocates Shahab Khattak, Ayaz Khan and others represented Mohammad Iqbal.

Barrister Amirullah Khan Chamkani had argued that it was a case of criminal conspiracy which was proved against the accused persons without any shadow of doubt.

He had argued that the offence committed by the accused was proved from the ocular evidence given by DSP Haider Khan and other prosecution witnesses.

The lawyer said video footage clearly showed the presence of the accused in the mob, which lynched Mashal Khan and that footage was admissible under Qanoon-i-Shahadat.

Published in Dawn, November 20th, 2020