Mashal’s father files appeal in PHC against acquittal of two accused

PESHAWAR: The father of Mashal Khan on Friday filed appeals in the Peshawar High Court (PHC) against the acquittal of two accused and for enhancement of sentence to others in the murder case of his son.

Muhammad Iqbal Khan, the complainant and father of the deceased Mashal Khan, also filed an appeal in the high court through his lawyer Barrister Amir Khan Chamkani, seeking enhancement of sentence from life imprisonment to capital punishment of death sentence to both Arif Councillor and Asad Katlang. An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) on March 21 sentenced two more accused, including Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) former tehsil councillor Arif Khan to life imprisonment in the Mashal lynching case.

Anti-Terrorism Court-III Judge Mehmoodul Hassan Khattak announced the judgment, awarding Arif Councillor and Asad Zia alias Asad Katlang life imprisonment on four counts each. However, the court acquitted the two accused, Sabir Mayar and Izharullah, in the case due to insufficient evidence. Mashal Khan, a 23-year-old student of the Department of Mass Communication at the Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan, was lynched by a mob on April 13, 2017, after accusing him of blasphemy. However, the allegations later proved to be false by a joint investigation team. All the appeals were kept pending in the high court till decision by a trial court in the four accused cases, which were decided on March 21. The court would take all the appeals for hearing.