PESHAWAR: The Federal Investigation Agency claimed on Wednesday that it did not have proof of a PTI councillor and the prime accused in the Mashal Khan lynching case fleeing the country.

Earlier, there were reports in the social media that Arif Mardanvi had escape to Thailand with the backing of a PTI lawmaker.

However, sources in the FIA said that they did not have record of Arif leaving the country. A source told Dawn that a passport issued on Arif’s identity card number 16101-7278427-5 had expired in 2016.

The source said that no new passport had been issued to the identity card number. The source said that the accused might have gone abroad illegally.

Published in Dawn, May 4th, 2017