PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court has granted bail to a man named in a Malakand honour killing case.

Justice Mohammad Ijaz Khan of a single-member bench accepted the bail petition of the accused, Noorullah alias Noore, a resident of Peshawar, on the condition of furnishing two surety bonds of Rs300,000 each.

The honour killing incident had occurred in the jurisdiction of the Pul Chowki police station in Malakand area on Oct 27, 2020.

Tasleem, a woman, who was injured in the firing, was the complainant in the case. She had initially charged her brother, Nawab, and two unidentified people with killing her husband, Hassan Wali, and injuring her. She also named petitioner Noorullah and another accused, Asfandyar, in the FIR.

The complainant claimed that she was a resident of Peshawar and was engaged to Shakir but married her cousin, Hassan Wali, of her own free will to the annoyance of her family members.

She alleged that on the day of the firing incident, her brother, Nawab, had visited her residence along with two unidentified people and said he wanted to see her husband.

The woman added that the three men later sat down with her husband in a room of the house before she heard gunshots and when she entered the room, she found her husband to be in a pool of blood.

She alleged that the accused also fired at her causing several injuries.

Lawyer Said Hakeem appeared for the petitioner and insisted that his client was falsely implicated in the murder case.

He contended that initially, his client was not named in the FIR but the complainant later charged him committing the murder without any legal justification.

The counsel said that even the identification parade conducted by the police was doubtful as the complainant had declared therein that her younger brother had told her that the petitioner was also involved in the murder of her husband.

He wondered why the petitioner would kill the complainant’s husband when he was not even related to them.

Published in Dawn, March 24th, 2022