PESHAWAR, Oct 7: The Peshawar High Court on Friday granted bail to a student of the University of Peshawar arrested in connection with the kidnapping of Islamia College University vice-chancellor.

A single bench comprising Justice Fazle Haq Abbassi accepted the bail petition filed by the suspect, Izhar Afzal, and directed that he should be set free after furnishing two sureties of Rs500,000 each. Earlier, the bail petition of the suspect was dismissed by an anti-terrorism court here.

The local police suspected that the accused had links with the outlawed Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan and had played important role in the kidnapping of Ajmal Khan. The prosecution claimed that another suspect, Yousaf, was arrested from Khyber Agency and he had named the petitioner as their informer. Advocate Pir Fida appeared for the petitioner and contended that there was no evidence against him and he was falsely implicated in the case. He stated that the petitioner was a student of the department of geology and he got nothing to do with the kidnapping of the vice-chancellor.

The state counsel stated that the petitioner used to monitor the routine of the vice-chancellor and conveyed the same to the kidnappers. He added that so far the VC had not been recovered and at least till then the petitioner may not be granted bail.

Ajmal Khan was abducted on Sept 7, 2010, in his official car along with his driver when he was on his way to the office. Later, some of his video footages surfaced which showed that he was in custody of the militants who had put forward certain demands to the government for his release. — Bureau Report