The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday upheld its Abbottabad circuit bench's decision to suspend the three-year jail terms handed to 25 people in the Mashal Khan lynching case.

On February 7 this year, a Haripur Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) had ruled on the 2017 lynching and murder of Mashal Khan, and handed the shooter — Imran Ali — two death sentences, five persons multiple terms of life imprisonment, and 25 others jail sentences.

On February 27, the PHC's Abbottabad circuit bench had suspended the multi-year sentences handed to the 25 — against which the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government and Mashal's family had filed review petitions.

Under PHC Chief Justice Waqar Ahmed Seth's stewardship, a two-member bench of the court today, in a brief order, set aside the petitions against the suspension of the sentences

Mashal Khan, 23, a student of Mass Communications at Mardan's Abdul Wali Khan University, was beaten and shot to death on April 13, 2017 by his fellow students after he was falsely accused of blasphemy.

The lynching took place within the premises of the university and was caught on video, which later circulated widely on social media.

The horrific incident had shocked the nation and sparked a debate over the misuse of the blasphemy laws in Pakistan.