ABBOTTABAD: Police failed to produce record in the ‘Makool girl burning case’ before an anti-terrorism court here on Wednesday.

Next date for hearing in the case will be fixed by the court order. Police had arrested 14 persons on May 5, 2016 for their alleged involvement in burning of the girl. The arrested persons were sent on judicial remand by the court on June 3, 2016 after remaining in police custody under physical remand for at least two months.

On April 27, 2016, a girl identified as Ambreen was burnt by some unidentified persons in Makool village in Galiyat. The incident was reported by national and international media. Different NGOs, human rights organisations, standing committee of National Assembly, prime minister and chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had taken notice of the incident.

Police arrested 14 persons and the case was put before an anti-terrorism court after the issue was highlighted by media. Sixteen police officials including DPO Khurram Rasheed were given awards at a special function on May 16 after the arrests were made.

Addressing the function, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Speaker Asad Qaisar had “owned” the case, saying he would appear before court on each hearing. However, he showed up just once on June 3 with a team of lawyers and members of PTI legal wing. The court took for hearing the case at least six times but no body from provincial government or Asad Qaiser showed up.

Next date for hearing to be fixed by court order

Earlier, the case was investigated by Counter-Terrorism Department but later it was taken over by Abbottabad police. No headway has been made in the case till date. An application has also been submitted in Supreme Court by one of arrested persons against police torture.

Atif Ali Khan Jadoon, the counsel for the arrested persons, alleged that police were using delaying tactics as no medical report of the forensic tests was provided to them.

ATC Judge Masood Ahmed Khan during the previous hearing showed displeasure over the slow progress by police in the case.

RESULTS: Ghania Mubarak, a student of Army Burn Hall College for Girls, got second position in the results of BA and BSc examinations, announced by University of Peshawar the other day.

About 13,000 candidates appeared in the examinations out of whom 90 students of Burn Hall College obtained first division.

Brig Azhar Iqbal Chaudhry, the principal of the college, congratulated Ghania Mubarak and other brilliant students for their hard work.

Published in Dawn, September 29th, 2016