PTI councillor among two awarded life imprisonment in Mashal case

PESHAWAR: An anti-terrorism court on Thursday awarded life imprisonment to two convicts, including Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) councillor Arif Khan in the Mashal Khan lynching case, reported ARY News.

The ATC, however, acquitted two other accused, including Sabir and Izhar for want of evidence.

The court was scheduled to announce its verdict on March 16 but it delayed the decision until March 21 for some unknown reason.

Mashal Khan, 23, a student of Mass Communications at Mardan’s Abdul Wali Khan University, was beaten and shot to death by an unruly mob on April 13, 2017, after being accused of blasphemy.

A total of 61 suspects were nominated in the first information report, out of these, 57 were sentenced by an ATC on February 7, 2018. The four suspects that had been on the run surrendered themselves to the court of law in June, 2018.

ATC-3 Judge Mahmoodul Hassan Khattak tried the accused and reserved verdict earlier this week after both prosecution and defence sides finished their arguments.

Read Also: PTI councillor professes innocence in Mashal lynching case

Key accused Imran Ali, who had confessed to shooting Mashal before a judicial magistrate, was handed death sentence on two counts last year.

He was awarded a death sentence under Section 302(b) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), and another death sentence along with a Rs100,000 fine under Section 7(1)(a) of the Anti Terrorism Act. He was also awarded five years of rigorous imprisonment under Section 15 AA-KPK, along with a fine of Rs50,000.