News Desk |
An anti-terrorism court in Peshawar has pronounced its verdict against the last four suspects in the Mashal Khan lynching case. Out of the four remaining accused on the case, two received life imprisonment and 2 were set free. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) councillor Arif Khan was one of the two who received life imprisonment. Two were acquitted by the ATC, Sabir and Izhar for want of evidence.
Mashal Khan, 23, a student of Mass Communications at Mardan’s Abdul Wali Khan University, was beaten and shot to death by an unruly mob on April 13, 2017, after being accused of blasphemy.
ATC-3 Judge Mahmoodul Hassan Khattak tried the accused and reserved verdict on March 12 after both prosecution and defence sides finished their arguments.
The case shocked the nation as it was later revealed that internal university political machinations were responsible for accusations against him of blasphemy. When the case was registered a total of 61 suspects were listed in the first information report, out of these, 57 were sentenced by an ATC on February 7, 2018.
The remaining four suspects that had been on the run surrendered themselves to the court of law in June, 2018. ATC-3 Judge Mahmoodul Hassan Khattak tried the accused and reserved verdict on March 12 after both prosecution and defence sides finished their arguments.
Read more: Anti-Terrorism Court announces verdict on Mashal Khan murder
Key accused Imran Ali, who had confessed to shooting Mashal before a judicial magistrate, was handed death sentence on two counts last year.
He was awarded a death sentence under Section 302(b) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), and another death sentence along with a Rs100,000 fine under Section 7(1)(a) of the Anti Terrorism Act. He was also awarded five years of rigorous imprisonment under Section 15 AA-KPK, along with a fine of Rs50,000.