PESHAWAR: A single-member Peshawar High Court bench has set aside the conviction of a suspected militant in the erstwhile Fata by an assistant political agent and acquitted him in a case regarding the support for a militant outfit and attacks on security forces in Mohmand tribal district.

Justice Abdul Shakoor Khan accepted an appeal filed by Bakhti Gul of Ekka Ghun area in Mohmand district ruling that the prosecution didn’t prove the charge against the appellant.

The appellant was convicted by an assistant political agent after his trial was conducted under the erstwhile Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) and had convicted him on multiple counts of collaborating with the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan and carrying out attacks on security forces in the tribal areas. He was sentenced to a total of 28 years imprisonment.

Shabbir Hussain Gigyani, lawyer for the appellant, said his client was taken into custody by the security forces on Feb 3, 2016, and was kept in illegal detention for over a year.

He added that his client was handed over to the then tribal administration of Mohmand Agency on Apr 26, 2017, along with a report of a joint investigation team.

The lawyer said his client was convicted on the basis of the JIT report without any evidence of his alleged crime.

He said in light of a recent Supreme Court judgment, the JIT report was inadmissible as evidence for conviction of an accused. Mr Shabbir said there were no specific allegations against the appellant regarding his involvement in any particular case of terrorism.

He added that the JIT had asked the tribal agency’s administration to convict the appellant.

The lawyer contended that there were scores of such cases when suspects were taken into custody and when they were not found involved in any particular offence, they were handed over to the administrations in the erstwhile tribal districts before being convicted without evidence.

Published in Dawn, February 5th, 2020