Bail plea in lynching case adjourned

LAHORE
A division bench of the Lahore High Court deferred until March 2, the hearing of bail applications of six accused of lynching a Christian couple in Kot Radha Kishan for their alleged involvement in blasphemy of Holy Quran last year, to record accused statements.
Bench postponed the hearing, as it was informed that the Supreme Court had taken suo motu notice of the incident and apex court would take up the matter on February 26.
Accused namely Harish Bashir, Waqas Bashir, Arsalan Latif, Usman Latif, Muhammad Hanif and another had filed the bail application as an anti-terrorism court had turned down their bail request. A Christian couple, resident of Chak-59 of Kot Radha Kishan, who worked at a kiln was brutally killed on November 4, 2014 by a mob of over 400 people for allegedly desecrating the Holy Quran.
Police had submitted challan of over 50 people in Anti-Terrorism Court.
A total 59 nominated accused were arrested in the case, out of which, 11 had filed bail applications, which were dismissed by the trial court. Another 12 accused have filed bail applications before the trial court which are still pending.
Applicants’ counsel submitted that police had implicated them in the case on the instigation of their opponents in the area. They said they had nothing to do with the lynching of couple, as they were not present there when the incident took place. He submitted that since their arrest the applicants were in jail and the police had not even recorded their statements, which showed that due to political pressure they were arrested and implicated in the case.
Counsel on behalf of the minor children of deceased couple had submitted that the police nominated in the FIR those who were involved in burning Shama and Shehzad. He said that they took the lives of a couple in barbarian way and did not deserve bail.