Mashal murder: Govt lawyer quits prosecution team

10th hearing of the case to be conducted today

HARIPUR: In a surprising twist to the murder case of university student Mashal Khan, top prosecutor Zafar Abbas left the team of government lawyers which is prosecuting 57 accused in an anti-terrorist court inside the Haripur Jail.

Abbas had submitted an application for quitting the prosecution team with ATC Judge Fazal-e-Subhan, which was approved on Monday – two days before the 10^th hearing of the case on Wednesday.

Sources said Abbas, the head of the four-member team, was allegedly getting threats from close relatives of some of the accused being tried for the murder. For this and some other reasons, the sources said, he had decided to quit the case.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government would now appoint the new head of the prosecution team.



Mashal Khan, a student of the Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, was lynched on the campus in April by the fellow students who accused him of committing blasphemy. An inquiry later determined that the blasphemy charges were fake.

So far, 57 accused have been arrested and are being tried by the ATC while four accused were still at large. The case was transferred to Haripur from Mardan. The judge on Monday rejected the bail applications filed by the 57 accused.

During the nine hearings of the case, the court has recorded statements of several prosecution witnesses. They included two magistrates. However, one of them backtracked on his statement given earlier to the police. The next hearing of the case would be held on Wednesday.