Mashal Khan lynching case: Parents to file 4 appeals against acquittal of accused

PESHAWAR: The parents of Mashal Khan have decided to file four appeals in the Peshawar High Court against the acquittal of 26 students in the lynching case and for enhancement of sentence to the convicts.

The appeals would be filed at a time when the religious parties are staging protests to demand release of all the persons convicted by an Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC)..

The Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) workers under leadership of its provincial general secretary Maulana Shujaul Mulk warmly welcomed the acquitted students in Mardan and called them “Ghazis”. In his address, he said the issue of Mashal Khan’s case would not end here. He also criticised the PTI-led provincial government for supporting the verdict.

The Jamaat-e-Islami provincial party leader Maulana Attaur Rehman, who is a member of the party’s Central Executive Committee, welcomed the acquitted persons and demanded the release of the convicted students and staff of the university.

Mashal Khan 23, a student of Mass Communication Department at the Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, was lynched on April 13 last year by a mob of students and staff members after the word spread that he had posted blasphemous content online.

“We are going to file four appeals against the Anti-Terrorism Court decision in the Mashal lynching case within three days,” Barrister Ameerullah Khan Chamkani, counsel for Mashal Khan in the trial court, told The News on Sunday.

An ATC convicted 31 of the 57 accused in the Mashal Khan lynching case on Wednesday. It awarded death sentence to the prime accused Imran Ali, life imprisonment to five others and four-year jail terms to 25 others. He added he had prepared one appeal and work on the remaining three was in progress. He said these were expected to be filed on Tuesday or Wednesday in the Peshawar High Court.

The counsel said he had prepared an appeal against acquittal of 26 students in the case. He claimed there was some evidence against the acquitted persons and they could also be sentenced in the case on the basis of that proof.

The court verdict had stated that no conclusive evidence was brought on record against them/ It added that they were not found to have played an overt act in the lynching of Mashal Khan.

The court stated that though they could be identified in the videos but they were only standing and making videos and thus they were acquitted of all the charges levelled against them.

However, the family members and parents of Mashal Khan have expressed deep concern over acquittal of the 26 students in the case. They decided to file appeal against the acquittal in the high court.

According to Barrister Ameerullah Chamkani, the second appeal would be filed for enhancement of sentence of those students and university employees who were penalized only to four years term.

He said they were only sentenced under two sections, including 297 about desecration of the body and 11-WW of the Anti-Terrorism Act.

The lawyer said they would request the court to sentence the accused under sections 302 (b), 120-B and section 7 ATA and others.

He said there was a video clip where the accused were seen hitting the body and Mashal Khan was alive that time. “Thus they could also be charged under the other sections in which the court had acquitted them,” he added.

In the third appeal, the lawyer said he would appeal for enhancement of sentence of the five convicted students from life sentence to death as there was clear evidence against them.

In the fourth appeal, he said, he would pray to the high court to award punishment to the prime accused Imran Ali, who had been awarded death sentence two times as the court had acquitted him in Section 120-B of the PPC and other sections.

The detailed judgment is spread over 93 pages. The principal accused, Imran Ali, had opened fire on Mashal Khan, who received three bullets in his body.

An official of the Prosecution Department told The News that the provincial government had also decided to file an appeal against the acquitted students in the case.

Under the law, the convicted person can file appeal within seven days, the complainant side with 15 days and the state has 30-day time for filing the appeal.