PESHAWAR: Peshawar High Court has rejected bail plea of an accused arrested for allegedly kidnapping a nine-year-old boy for ransom and subsequently killing him in Dir Upper last year.

A single member bench consisting of Justice Qazi Jawad Ahsanullah ruled that the available evidence prima facie connected the accused-petitioner Gul Shad with the abduction and murder of the boy.

The bench observed that his co-accused Hazrat Hussain had recorded his confessional statement before a court, narrating the entire sequence of events including the planning of abduction and subsequent murder of the minor through strangulation, allegedly with the active participation of the present petitioner.

“The confessional statement of the co-accused stands corroborated by the postmortem report of the deceased. Furthermore, the dead body of the minor abducted boy was recovered from the grave of one Raessa Bibi on the pinpointing of the petitioner and his co-accused,” the bench ruled.

FIR of the occurrence was registered in Upper Dir last year

The bench further observed that the evidence on record, especially the confession of co-accused Hazrat Hussain, prima facie suggested that the present petitioner was the principal accused and reasonable grounds existed to believe his alleged involvement in commission of the offence attracting the prohibitory clause of Section 497 of Code of Criminal Procedure.

Initially, an FIR was registered at Wari police station, Dir Upper, on Jan 27, 2024, against kidnapping of the boy named Arman Khan on complaint of his paternal uncle Raz Mohammad.

The complainant stated that his nine-year-old nephew Arman had gone out of home along with his younger brother to a nearby market. However, after some time his brother returned home while unidentified persons abducted Arman.

The complainant stated that father of the boy had been in Saudi Arabia in connection with his job.

He said that his brother informed him by telephone that he had received message from the kidnappers from an unknown telephone number to pay ransom to the tune of 250,000 Saudi Riyals failing which the child would be harmed.

A joint investigation team traced the petitioner and two other co-accused as the culprits involved in the abduction of the child, following which they were charged in the case. Subsequently, it surfaced that they had strangulated the child to death and dumped his body in a grave. They were charged under Section 7 of Anti-Terrorism Act and sections 302, 365-A, 364-A and 34 of Pakistan Penal Code.

The assistant advocate general, Rahimullah Chitrali, and Advocate Safdar Khan appeared for the state and complainant, respectively.

They said that the petitioner was involved in a heinous offence and didn’t deserve to be set free on bail.

They contended that evidence showed his involvement in the commission of the offence.

They argued that on petitioner’s pinpointing police recovered the body of the deceased. They added that the telephone number from which the ransom demand was made belonged to a daughter of the petitioner.

The petitioner’s counsel argued that a co-accused in the case named Hazrat Usman had been granted bail by Supreme Court in Sep last year.

He added that on rule of consistency the petitioner also deserved to be released on bail.

However, the bench observed that the detailed reasons for grant of bail to the said co-accused had not been provided to this court.

The bench observed that the role of the present petitioner was distinguishable from that of Hazrat Usman as he had been named in the confessional statement of the co-accused Hazrat Hussain.

Published in Dawn, May 26th, 2025