Execution suspended: PHC grants reprieve to five convicts

Army chief had confirmed death sentences of 10 terrorists on November 23

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday halted the execution of five militants who were handed down death sentences by military courts for attacking security forces and killing civilians.

A two-judge bench comprising PHC Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Justice Muhammad Ibrahim Khan suspended their death sentences while hearing writ petitions against their execution.

The petitions were filed by the relatives of Fazal Ali, Muhammad Wali, Tera Gul, Khial Jan and Payu Jan through their lawyers Khalid Anwar and Barrister Mian Tajjamul. They were accused of being active members of the outlawed Lashkar-e-Islam. The bench issued notices to the federal government to submit record of the case at the next hearing.

According to the Inter-Services Public Relations, the chief of army staff on November 23 confirmed the death sentences of 10 terrorists, including five for offences relating to attacks on security forces, killing of civilians and security forces personnel as well as the destruction of educational institutions.

They were involved in heinous offences related to terrorism, including killing of innocent civilians, slaughtering of Captain Jonaid Khan, Captain Najam Riaz Raja, Naik Shahid Rasool and Lance Naik Shakeel Ahmed of SSG, the ISPR had said.

It added that all these terrorists were active members of the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Lashkar-e-Islam and involved in creating unrest in the country through subversive activities.

Fazal Ali was an active member of the TTP, the ISPR said, adding he was involved in attacking law-enforcement agencies and the armed forces which resulted in the deaths of Havildar Munir Ahmed and Sepoy Sajid Khan and injuries to several soldiers. He was also found in possession of firearms and explosives.

About Tirah Gul and Muhammad Wali, it said they were active members of Lashkar-e-Islam. They were involved in attacking law-enforcement agencies and the armed forces which resulted in the deaths of Havildar Noor Mast, Naik Farman Ali, Naik Shabbir Akhtar, Sepoy Humayun, Sepoy Fakhar Alam and Sepoy Ismail while causing injuries to many other soldiers.

The ISPR said Khial Jan was an active member of Lashkar-e-Islam and was involved in attacking law-enforcement agencies which resulted in the deaths of a civilian Abdullah, Khyber Khasadar soldier Sameed Khan and injuries to several other soldiers. Payo Jan was an active member of Lashkar-e-Islam. He was involved in attacking the armed forces which resulted in the death of Sepoy Qasim Raza, the ISPR said.

The counsel for Fazal Ali submitted that he was a student and elders of a local jirga handed him over to security forces in 2009. He was then shifted to an internment centre, where relatives met him several times. Their family members came to know through the media that he was awarded death sentence by a military court.

Tera Gul, Muhammad Wali, Khial Jan and Payo Jan counsels also argued that their family members claimed that they were picked up by security forces on January 2016 from different areas in the Khyber tribal area.

Their relatives also came to know through media reports that they had been awarded death term by military courts and the army chief had confirmed their sentences on November 23, 2016.

The military courts were set up following the December 16, 2014 carnage at the Army Public School in Peshawar.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 2^nd, 2016.