Youth arrested for threatening NGO chief

PESHAWAR: Police arrested a young man after a local court dismissed his pre-arrest bail application in a case of allegedly hurling threats at a non-governmental organization (NGO) head in a video message on facebook.

Additional Sessions Judge, Peshawar, Sadia Arshad, dismissed pre-arrest bail application of the accused, Hamza Bilal, 23, a resident of Mardan, who claims to be president of Mardan Youth Parliament.

Chairperson of the NGO, Aware Girls, Gulalai Ismail, had lodged a first information report (FIR) against Hamza Bilal at the Gulberg Police Station in Peshawar on November 20, last year. The police had charged the youth under the Telegraph Act.

As per the FIR, the accused in his video message was seen and heard provoking the people against the complainant Gulalai Ismail and her organization. In the message, the accused alleged that the complainant and her organization were working against Islam and were involved in immoral activities.

During hearing, the counsel for the complainant, Fazle Wahid, submitted before the court that in the video message, the accused had also hurled life threats at the complainant, which provoked many his friends on the facebook and they also passed insulting remarks against the complainant in the video message.

The counsel said the accused then secured a pre-arrest bail from the court on January 15 in the case and then staged a protest demonstration outside the Peshawar Press Club on January 16 against Gulalai Ismail and her organization, provoking people against her in the name of religion and culture.

He argued that the accused was trying to repeat another Mashal-like incident to murder the complainant in the name of religion and culture.Gulalai Ismail stated in the FIR that she had been running the Aware Girls NGO for the rights of women in the province since 2009. She said she had won international awards in recognition of her work.

As per the FIR, the complainant stated that some two months ago, the accused through fake facebook accounts had started her character assassination, which she got removed from time to time with the help of Federal Investigation Agency.

On November, 20, 2017 she claimed, the accused posted a video message on his facebook account in which he hurled direct life threats at her and provoked the people against her in the name of religion.

However, the accused youth denied posting the video message. The police investigation officer later produced the video message and record of the facebook account. Talking to The News, Gulalai Ismail said that after the video message, she felt threats to her life and relocated to

another place.

She said that Hamza Iqbal, had launched a social media campaign against her and organization when she along with other women rights activists staged protest rallies for women and to seek for justice for Mashal Khan family after the lynching incident in Abdul Wali Khan University.