PESHAWAR, Sept 24: A juvenile court on Saturday granted bail to a 16-year-old offender in a narcotics and arms smuggling case. The court presided over by Nowshera district and sessions judge Saleem Khan Minakhel ordered that accused-applicant Zahid Khan should be released on furnishing of two sureties of Rs500,000 each.

Zahid was arrested while travelling in a car with two men near Pabbi in Nowshera on Feb 16 last year. Pabbi police said they had a tip about smuggling of narcotics and arms.

The police claimed to have recovered 400kgs of charas, two Kalashnikovs and a pistol from the car. Zahid was taken into custody along with other accused, Hamid Ali and Ahsanullah.

The court has been conducting a separate trial of Zahid under the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance (JJSO), 2000.

The chairman, Voice of Prisoners, Noor Alam Khan, appeared for Zahid and contended that he entitled to be released on bail as his trial could not be concluded in the prescribed period.

Referring to section 10 (7) of the JJSO, he argued that if a trial could not be completed in a year in an offence punishable with death the accused was entitled to be released on bail.