PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday granted bail to an eighth grade student arrested under the Protection of Pakistan Act on the charge of attacking a police post in Swabi district.

The bench comprising the Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Justice Syed Afsar Shah accepted a writ petition filed by the 14-year-old suspect and ordered his release on bail on condition of furnishing two sureties of Rs1 million each.

The petitioner was arrested in the case registered at Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) Mardan on Sept 16, 2014, under different sections of the Pakistan Penal Code, Section 16 of PPA, Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, and sections 3 and 4 of the Explosive Substance Act.

The FIR was registered on the complaint of the SHO of Farmulae police station in Swabi, who claimed militants attacked a police post in his area after midnight with heavy weapons.

14-year-old in custody over last year attack on Swabi police post

No casualty was reported in the attack.

NGO Voice of Prisoners chairman Noor Alam Khan and lawyer for the petitioner Arshad Ali Mohmand said the suspect was a juvenile, 14, and that he was enrolled in the eighth grade at a local school.

Noor Alam said currently, there existed four different judicial systems in the country under which the courts set up under the Anti-Terrorism Act and the PPA along with military and regular courts functioned.

He said it was discriminatory on part of the government to try suspects in four different courts for same offence.

Noor Alam said the petitioner was falsely implicated in the case.

He said the chief of the said police post first named suspects in a report and later claimed that the informer had given him names of some other persons, including the petitioner, for involvement in the post attack.

Noor Alam said the suspect was handed over to the police by his father and brother along with a local cleric on Sept 15 and subsequently he was cleared by security forces.

He said despite clearance, the petitioner was not freed and that after keeping him in illegal detention, the police charged him with attacking their post.

Noor Alam said the police had misused the PPA and booked an innocent boy under it.

The lawyer referred to the famous Supreme Court judgment in Asfandyar Wali Khan case regarding the National Accountability Ordinance 1999 and said in light of the said judgment, the high court had powers to grant bail to the petitioner.

Deputy attorney general Kifayatullah Khan and additional advocate general Waqar Ahmad, who appeared before the court for the federal and provincial governments respectively, said under the PPA, the petitioner might not be freed on bail.

Published in Dawn, March 6th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play