PESHAWAR: Advocate general Abdul Lateef Yousafzai told a Peshawar High Court bench yesterday that the provincial government has no objection to the sought-after transfer of the Mashal Khan lynching case from Mardan’s anti-terrorism court to some other in the province and the holding of trial inside prison

Though, the client of a lawyer for several suspects or criminals arrested in the case opposed the appeal of Mashal’s father, Iqbal Khan for the case’s transfer and that they wanted to become respondents in the petition.

Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Abdul Shakoor asked the lawyer while adjourning the hearing until further orders, to file his clients’ written objections to the petition with the court.

They requested the government for producing the records of the case.

The petition has been filed by Iqbal Khan under Section 28 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997, if it is in the interest of justice; it empowers the court to transfer a case from one ATC to another.  His lawyer, Muzamil Khan, requested the bench to ask the trial not to submit charge sheet (challan) of the case to the ATC in Mardan until the disposal of his petition.

The production of records had been already ordered, bench observed.

A 23-year-old student of the Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, Mashal, was lynched by a mob, including students, staff members and outsiders on campus, on the charge of blasphemy, on Apr 13. His father said in the appeal that in such a sensitive matter, the open trial was not possible so, for the protection of the witness, lawyers and judges from any harm, the trial should be conducted inside the jail.

The reason behind the trial won’t be concluded in many months is that a number of accused, witnesses and lawyers were involved in the case.

Pressuring both witnesses and the petitioner into making a compromise and forcing the prosecution witnesses into changing their statements, the trial in Mardan would create a ‘serious situation, the petitioner feared. He said.

Most of the accused belonged to Mardan and the prevailing atmosphere in the district was not congenial to outsiders, he sustained.

The petitioner requested the court to order the transfer of the case to ATC either in Haripur or other appropriate district in the province and the holding of the trial inside the respective central prison.

In petition, Mashal’s father said the case was examined by a joint investigation team and that it was reported in the media that investigation was complete and the case’s challan had been given to the district public prosecutor of Mardan for production in Mardan’s ATC.

He insisted that in a bid to cover up the real motive behind Mashal’s killing, the deceased was accused of having committed blasphemy.

“The blasphemy charge has been proved wrong and fabricated in the JIT investigation,” he said, adding that the allegation turned the case into one of a sensitive nature.