PESHAWAR: An anti-terrorism court accepted on Saturday two applications filed by Maulana Sufi Mohammad, chief of the banned Tehreek Nifaz-i-Shariat-i-Muhammadi (TNSM), and ordered transfer of two cases against him to regular courts. One of the cases carries the sedition charge and the other that of inciting hatred against the government.

Judge Abdur Rauf Khan, who had reserved orders on the applications after completion of arguments a few days ago, pronounced that the charges against the accused did not fall under the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997.

He ordered that the cases be placed before the Swat district and sessions judge for referral to the relevant court.

Due to security reasons, the proceedings were conducted in the Peshawar Central Prison, where Sufi Mohammad had been imprisoned since his arrest in 2009.

He has been acquitted in 10 of the cases referred to the ATC.

A case against a large number of TNSM activists and Sufi Mohammad for storming a police station at Kabal in Swat was transferred to a regular court by the ATC last month.

In some of the cases, he was acquitted after the government withdrew the charges following peace deals between the TNSM and the then provincial government in 2008 and 2009.

Sufi Mohammad and TNSM activists had held a sit-in for several days at the Rest House Ground in Timergara in October 2008 and made speeches against the government. After the final stage of a military operation against militants was launched in May 2009, an FIR was also registered against the participants of the sit-in.

He is also accused of sedition and instigating people to wage war against the country during a speech at the Swat Grassy Ground in April 2009.

Published in Dawn, April 19th, 2015

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