HARIPUR: A deputy superintendent of police and a private photographer testified as prosecution witnesses before an anti-terrorism court in the Mashal Khan lynching case here on Wednesday.

The court resumed hearing of the case in Central Jail Haripur where six witnesses were to record their statements.

However, DSP Sheikh Maltoon area Haidar Ali Khan and a private photographer who took the snaps of the incident and Mashal’s body, recorded their statements before the court.

During the cross-examination the DSP confirmed that he, along with a contingent of police, had reached the Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan about an hour and 15 minutes ahead of the student’s lynching, but despite his efforts he failed to control the mob that brutally murdered Mashal Khan. The time of the occurrence, according to the FIR, was 2.15pm.

When asked by one of the defence counsel whether he knew by face all the 14 to 15 accused who murdered Mashal Khan, or carried out any identification parade of them, he told the court that he knew some of them and that he did not conduct their identification parade.

The prosecution counsel, however, abandoned DSP Kamran Khan, while other witnesses would testify during the next hearing.

The case was adjourned till Saturday (Nov 11) when the key prosecution witness, Abdullah, who was rescued in an injured condition, would appear before the ATC through a video link in a court building in Abbottabad.

The court had accepted the application of senior public prosecutor Hameedullah Khan, who was heading the official prosecution team, for recording statement of Abdullah through a video link due to fear for his life.

Published in Dawn, November 9th, 2017