ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Wednesday put on hold a parallel inquiry into the lynching of Mardan university student Mashal Khan by a judicial commission and expressed surprise over the need for the judicial inquiry when a joint investigation team (JIT) is already investigating the shocking incident.

“When a forum already exists for investigation, why did Chief Minister Pervez Khattak announce the formation of the judicial body,” said Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar while heading a three-judge bench.

The JIT, constituted on the orders of Inspector General of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Salahuddin Mehsud, is headed by Superintendent Police of Mardan Shafiullah and officials of the civil Intelligence Bureau and police department are its members.

The court had taken up suo motu notice of the harrowing incident in which Mashal Khan, a student of Abdul Wali Khan University, was lynched over blasphemy allegations.

KP police chief asked to personally supervise investigation, submit progress report on a weekly basis

Asked why the chief justice of the Peshawar High Court was requested by the chief minister to constitute the judicial commission in the presence of the JIT, Additional Advocate General of KP Waqar Ahmed told the court that the provincial government would like to reconsider the decision.

However, the court asked the KP government to present an explanation over reasons why the chief minister announced the constitution of the commission on the floor of the provincial assembly and also asked for terms of reference for the commission with a weekly progress report on the investigations.

“The judiciary is already burdened with a number of cases and we cannot burden it more,” the chief justice observed. “We do not want the focus of the JIT to swerve for political reasons.”

He called for looking into certain confessional statements doing the rounds on social media and asked police to ascertain the truth behind the statements, which had created an upheaval among people.

The chief justice suggested that police issue a handout to tell people whether the confessional statements were real or not.

He said that the lynching of Mashal Khan was not an ordinary incident and the court did not have the words to condemn the most heinous crime.

The bench observed that though the court was cautious not to influence any inquiry but like all others it also wanted to know the truth behind the tragedy.

The court inquired why no member of the intelligence agency associated with the armed forces had been included in the JIT and asked for reconsideration on the constitution of the investigation team.

Justice Umar Ata Bandial stressed the need for an in-depth investigation into the killing and said media reports suggested that Mashal Khan had a vast knowledge of religion.

JIT head Shafiullah told the court that police had arrested 28 suspects, of whom 20 were identified from the video footage of the lynching incident and the other eight were arrested on the identification of those arrested earlier. All suspects have been booked under relevant sections of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997.

IG Mehsud was asked by the court to personally supervise the investigation of the case and submit a progress report on a weekly basis. He told the court that 80 per cent of the investigation had been completed and a challan would be presented in the trial court soon.

Published in Dawn, April 20th, 2017