PHC grants bail to suspect in target killing cases

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Friday issued release order of a terror suspect on bail in a case regarding target killing of traffic police constables.

A single bench headed by Justice Nasir Mehfooz issued the release order of Abdul Wakeel, resident of Bajaur tribal district, after hearing arguments from all the parties. During hearing, Shabbir Hussain Gigyani, counsel for the accused, submitted before the court that the accused was charged with target killing of Nawazish, traffic warden, while he was on duty in Swabi district on April 13, 2013. He said the accused was nominated by Joint Investigation Team (JIT) on basis of investigation, source, and intelligence reports. He was arrested on October 16, 2018 after remaining absconder in the case for five years. As per the prosecution report, the accused was also charged in another case of target killing of a traffic warden in which he was granted bail on January 2, 2018. The lawyer for the accused stated that the bail was granted to the terror suspect due to poor investigation and failure of collection of evidence, non-conduct of identification parade coupled with the plea of the accused regarding his illegal confinement since long. The additional advocate general, however, opposed the release of the terror suspect on bail.