PESHAWAR, Nov 14: A local court on Wednesday indicted an alleged outlaw Tahir Zaman in the murder case of former governor Lt-Gen (retd) Fazle Haq.

The accused pleaded not guilty to the offence and decided to stand trial. The court, presided over by additional district and sessions judge Azhar Khan, has summoned all the prosecution witnesses and fixed Dec 3 for the next hearing.

Asadullah Chamkani advocate appeared for the accused. Mr Zaman was arrested few days back when his pre-arrest bail petition was rejected by a court in Charssada district in a case pertaining to attack on former chief minister Aftab Sherpao.

Main trial in the case was conducted few years back and all the prime accused were acquitted by the trial court. As Mr Zaman could not be apprehended at that time, his trial could not be conducted.

Late Fazle Haq was gunned down by unidentified assailants in an ambush in 1991.

In the present case, various important personalities were charged in the FIR, including chief of Tehrik-i-Jafaria Pakistan Allama Sajid Naqvi, the then consular general of Iran in Peshawar, Allama Sherkhudai and the then secretary-general of TJP, Anwer Ali Akhundzada.

Allama Sajid Naqvi was absolved of the charges in the initial stages of the trial, whereas rest of the accused including Anwer Ali Akhundzada, Bhai Khan and Shahjehan were acquitted later. Alleged outlaws including Tilla Mohammed, Mohammed Naeem and Tahir Zaman were also charged by the prosecution. However, Tilla Mohammed and Mohammed Naeem were killed in a police encounter in Mardan.

The prosecution has claimed that the plan to kill Fazle Haq was prepared by some leaders of Tehrik-i-Jafaria and for that purpose they hired services of a gang of proclaimed offenders headed by Tilla Mohammed. However, in the main trial the prosecution could not prove its case.