PHC approves bail plea, orders release of Sufi Muhammad

PESHAWAR: Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Monday approved the bail plea of Maulana Sufi Muhammad, the father-in-law of proscribed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Chief Mullah Fazlullah and the founder of Tehreek-e Nafaz-e-Shariat Mohammadi (TNSM).

Hearing the case on Monday, Justice Waqar Ahmed Seth approved the bail after petitioner’s lawyer argued that Sufi Maulana Sufi remained in prison for a long time despite sickness and old age.

The lawyer requested the court to accept the bail plea of Sufi Maulana for medical purposes.

Sufi Mohammad, whose son-in-law is Maulana Fazlullah, the fugitive chief of the Pakistani Taliban, was himself charged with murder, treason, terrorism and rebellion.

The elderly pro-Taliban cleric was the architect of a violent movement for the enforcement of sharia in country´s northwestern Malakand Division.

He was arrested in October 2001 as he crossed the border into Pakistan with a group of armed men.

But he was released in 2008 under a peace agreement with local tribal elders which settled those charges.

Believed to be in his 90s, he was arrested again in Peshawar in 2009 over an inflammatory speech, and has been held in a maximum security prison.

His trial is ongoing. But on Monday his defence lawyer Fida Gul told AFP that a high court in Peshawar had ordered Sufi Muhammad´s release.

"He was too old to move and was suffering from kidney problems and weakness, and was taken to hospital many times," Gul said. (AFP/Online)