PHC issues notice to accused in application of Asma’s brother

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Wednesday issued a notice to respondent accused persons in an application of the brother of Asma Rani, seeking transfer of the case and bail petitions of the accused from Anti-Terrorism Court Kohat to Peshawar district.

Asma Rani, 3rd year student of Abbottabad Medical College, was shot dead for what her relatives said rejecting a marriage proposal. A single bench headed by PHC Chief Justice Yahya Afridi issued the notice to respondents accused Mujahid Afridi and Shahzeb and the state to submit reply in the application seeking transfer of the cases from Kohat to Peshawar.

Asma Rani’s brother Muhammad Irfan, whose family hails from Lakki Marwat and is presently living in Kohat, filed the application for transfer of the cases from Anti-Terrorism Court Kohat to Peshawar through his lawyers Ghulam Mohiyuddin Malik and Muhammad Farook Malik.

The application said that close relatives of the accused are influential people including the district president of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the local MNA, and some practicing lawyers in Kohat.

“The complainant party/petitioner used all resources to engage a local lawyer for pleading the murder case of Asma Rani in Kohat, but no-one accepted the brief of the case,” it was stated in the application by Muhammad Irfan.

The petitioner claimed that on each hearing, their opponents accompanied by supporters were hostile towards them. He said that he and his relatives felt threatened due to their hostility. “The atmosphere is unsafe and uncongenial in Kohat for me and my lawyer from Peshawar,” he claimed.

Recently the prosecution had added section 7 of Anti-Terrorism Act in the FIR and the case was transferred from ordinary court to Anti-Terrorism Court for trial.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police had arrested Mujahid Afridi, the alleged killer of the third-year student of Ayub Medical College, upon arrival at the airport in Islamabad.