PESHAWAR, Sept 15 The Peshawar High Court on Monday granted bail to a cleric of Swat district charged with issuing a decree declaring the killing of security forces in accordance with Islam.

Chief Justice Tariq Pervez Khan directed the petitioner, Mufti Abdul Shakoor, to furnish two sureties of Rs200,000 each.

The Swat police had arrested the applicant on Dec 6, 2007, along with scores of other people and had claimed that he was a cleric of Imam Dehri centre of Maulana Fazlullah.

The police alleged that they had recovered weapons and explosives from the accused persons. The police also alleged that Mufti Shakoor had issued a decree wherein he had stated that the killing of security forces personnel in accordance with Islam.

Earlier, his bail petition was dismissed by an anti-terrorism court in Swat.

Advocate Muhammad Qayyum appeared for the petitioner and contended that the he was falsely implicated in the case by the law enforcing agencies and nothing objectionable had been recovered from his possession.

Mr Qayyum argued that the petitioner had never issued a decree and the one attributed to him was issued by somebody else.

He contended that the petitioner in his statement recorded with the police had clearly stated that he had not issued the decree and in fact some militants had put his signature on a paper by force.

He added that the petitioner claimed that he signed the paper under duress.

The counsel contended that there was not a single piece of evidence on record against the petitioner.

Meanwhile, the high court also granted bail to a person charged by the Swat police of being a member of a militant outfit.

The court ordered that the petitioner, Rahim Khan, should furnish two sureties of Rs200,000 each.

The Swat police had arrested him few months back and claimed that he was in possession of some explosives.

His counsel contended that he was arrested merely on basis of hearsay and nothing was recovered from his possession. He added that merely on basis of allegations a person could not be kept behind the bars.