TNSM chief’s case adjourned till 31st

PESHAWAR: The Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) on Saturday adjourned the case of the Tanzim Nifaz Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM) chief Maulana Sufi Mohammad till January 31.
Maulana Sufi Mohammad and three other accused in the hate speech case are likely to be indicted at the next hearing.
A total of 13 cases have been registered against the TNSM chief, who was detained by the security forces in 2009 at the time of the military operation in Swat. The cases include inciting violence, sedition and extending direct and indirect support to militancy.
Maulana has already been acquitted in 10 cases. In December last year, the court dismissed an acquittal application of Sufi Muhammad and his accomplices in the case pertaining to the attack on the Kabal Police Station in Swat.
The charges included attempted murder, sedition, and carrying arms under Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997.
In November 2014, the TNSM chief was acquitted along with other 30 accomplices in two murder and sedition cases dating back to 1995. On October 7, 2013, he was acquitted in another sedition case.
his arrest in 2009, Sufi Muhammad’s case proceedings were initiated in Timergara in Lower Dir. He was later brought to the Central Prison Peshawar’s camp court.
Sufi Muhammad has mostly remained behind bars during the last decade as the successive governments kept in prison but didn’t try him.
The previousANP-led government released him under a peace agreement in 2008 and sought his help to make peace with the TTP militants led by his son-in-law Maulana Fazlullah. It followed another peace agreement in 2009 between the ANP-led government and the then Swat Taliban leader Mullah Fazlullah.