PESHAWAR: A single-member Peshawar High Court bench has granted bail to a suspected militant, who was taken into custody by security forces in 2015 and was later charged with carrying out militant activities and waging war on the state.

Chief Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth allowed bail petition filed by the accused, Shakil Khan, a resident of Bara tehsil of Khyber district, and directed him to furnish two surety bonds valuing Rs500,000 each.

The petitioner was taken into custody in Jan 2015 from Achini area in Peshawar and remained missing for many years. He was later handed over to the then administration of the erstwhile Khyber Agency (now Khyber tribal district) and was charged under the Pakistan Penal Code’s sections 121 and 121-A, which deal with wage war on the state.

The prosecution claimed that the accused was a member of the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan and was involved in attacks on the convoys of security forces and collection of donations for his outfit.

Shabbir Hussain Gigyani, lawyer for the petitioner, said his client was implicated in a concocted case and that there was not a single piece of evidence against him.

Bara resident accused of carrying out militant activities, waging war on state

He said the petitioner remained in illegal detention for many years before being handed over to the administration of the then Khyber Agency in Feb 2018.

The lawyer said the report of a so-called joint investigation team was submitted to the administration recommending 40 years imprisonment for his client.

He said after the merger of tribal areas with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, an assistant commissioner had illegally convicted the petitioner and sentenced him to 28 years imprisonment.

Mr Gigyani said the assistant commissioner had no jurisdiction to conduct the trial of the petitioner and therefore, the high court set aside that conviction and sent his case to an anti-terrorism court for trial.

He said while taking away the petitioner from Peshawar in 2015, the security forces didn’t follow the mandatory provision of 86-A of Code of Criminal Procedure and didn’t produce him before a magistrate.

The lawyer said a council of elders (jirga) was formed under Section 11 of the erstwhile FCR (Frontier Crimes Regulation) and that its report had declared that no evidence of any wrongdoing was available against the petitioner.

BAIL GRANTED: The bench granted bail to two people facing trial for kidnapping two students and their driver.

It accepted the bail petition of the accused, including Ibrar and Zahid, both residents of Mardan, on condition of furnishing two surety bonds valuing Rs500,000 each.

The police had claimed that the petitioners and two other detainees were involved in the kidnapping of two students and their driver for ransom.

Family members of the students later claimed that they used their influence and got the two freed by kidnappers.

The police later arrested the two petitioners and two other accused.

The lawyer for petitioners said his clients were arrested in 2016 and since then they had been behind bars.

He said the abductees were not recovered from his client’s custody, while no evidence was available on record to connect them with the commission of the offence.

Published in Dawn, April 5th, 2020