PHC wants Hangu shelling victims compensated

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) has sought compliance report from the federal and provincial governments about the court’s decision that had called for compensating the legal heirs of the innocent civilians killed in the shelling during military operation at Hangu district of the province in 2009.

A two-member bench, comprising Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth and Justice Shakeel Ahmad sought the compliance report from the government on July 26.

Khan Asghar, a resident of Zargari area in the Hangu district, had filed contempt of court petition against the federal government through secretary defence and others through his lawyer Muhammad Ilyas Orakzai for non-compliance with the court’s decision.

During the hearing, the lawyer informed the bench that the high court in 2012 had directed the government to pay compensation equal to Shaheed Package, which is Rs3 million to the legal heirs of the civilians killed in the Pakistan Air Force shelling. He submitted the court’s decision has not complied with even after the passage of about 5 years.

He submitted that as per his information, the provincial government against the court’s decision had approved a summary of only Rs0.5 million as Shaheed Package under 2013 policy and Rs0.2 million for the injured person.

However, he said, deputy commissioner of Hangu was delaying the payment of the compensation amount to the affected family members.

The court had given decision in a writ petition of Khan Asghar as his six family members, including minor child and two women, were killed and eight others injured in PAF shelling on his house.

He had sought diyat amount from the government for killing his six family members. The slain people included his two daughters Hakeema and Asia and a son Abdul Hameed, two grandsons one-year-old Muhammad Bilal and one and a half years old Abdullah.

The shelling on June 11, 2009 had also left seriously injured eight other members of his family. Among them were Siad Juma, Hameeda, Majida, Saima, Saleha, Badshah Bibi and Muhammad Yasir.

During the course of hearing, the court had questioned the record about the deaths of six civilians as they were neither terrorists nor involved in any anti-state activities.

The petitioner’s lawyer Muhammad Ilyas submitted that the Hangu deputy commissioner had confirmed to the court that six members of the family were killed and eight injured in the incident.

However, he added, there was no report from the officials mentioning that the petitioner and his family members were terrorists or had any links with the banned organisation.