PESHAWAR: An anti-terrorism court has transferred to the Peshawar district and sessions judge the trial of a juvenile arrested on charges of killing an undertrial blasphemy accused inside a courtroom.

The judge Dr Aamir Nazir ordered transfer of the case to the district judge so that it could be entrusted to a juvenile court for trying the accused under the Juvenile Justice System Act, 2018.

The judge ruled that the decision was taken in light of a recent judgment of the Peshawar High Court wherein it was ordered that a juvenile accused charged with terrorism-related offence should be tried by a juvenile court notified under the Juvenile Justice System Act 2018 and not by an anti-terrorism court.

The accused had allegedly killed a US citizen and blasphemy accused Tahir Ahmad Naseem inside a courtroom at the Judicial Complex on July 29, 2020.

A cleric Wasiullah and a junior lawyer Tufail Zia are co-accused in the case and have been facing trial along with the prime accused.

The Peshawar High Court had declared the accused a juvenile in September 2020 and had ordered his trial under the Juvenile Justice System Act, 2018.

However, the ATC continued trial of the three accused persons inside the Peshawar Central Prison, while treating the prime accused as a juvenile.

However, on April 10, a bench of the high court, while hearing a petition of another juvenile accused, ruled that after promulgation of the JJSA 2018 the legal framework had changed and the ATC had not been assigned powers of a juvenile court.

It is worth mentioning that the prime accused was stated to be 17 years of age at the time of occurrence.

The co-accused, Wasiullah, had stated in his confessional statement that he had motivated the prime accused to kill Tahir Ahmad Naseem.

The lawyer Tufail Zia is accused of taking a pistol inside the Judicial Complex before handing it over to the alleged killer.

Published in Dawn, April 21st, 2023