PHC grants bail to two men suspected of killing Charanjit Singh

Lawyer contends police yet to prove involvement of suspects, family yet to give statement against them

PESHAWAR: The bail of two people, accused of being involved in the murder of a well-liked Sikh inter-faith harmony and rights activist in the provincial capital earlier this year, has been approved by a high court.

Their bail pleas had initially been rejected by trial courts.

After their bail applications had been rejected by an anti-terror court judge, suspects Shaheryar and Tariq Khan had filed their bail applications before the Peshawar High Court (PHC) through Barrister Amirullah Chamakani.

Chamkani argued that the allegations levelled against both of his clients have yet to be proved by the police.

Moreover, he contended that the victim’s family had yet to record a statement against the accused. Hence, he argued that the bail applications of both the accused should be granted and they are released.

A single bench of the PHC comprised of Justice Muhammad Ibrahim Khan, after hearing the arguments, accepted their bail applications and released both the suspects on bail.

Shaheryar and Tariq had been arrested in June for the murder of Sikh leader and rights activist Charanjit Singh in Peshawar.

On the afternoon of May 29, as Singh sat in his general store near Scheme Chowk, an unidentified assailant barged in and shot him dead. Since it was a hot afternoon in Ramazan, there were not many people in the market and the assailant was able to make good his escape.



The attack had sent a wave of panic amongst the Sikh community in the province which has seen a number of fatal attacks in recent years, the most prominent of which was the brutal murder of the then chief minister’s advisor on minority affairs Sardar Soran Singh.

The then Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) interim chief minister Justice (retired) Dost Mohammad Khan had then directed the police to trace and arrest Singh’s killers.

On Jun 14, the Counter Terrorism Department of K-P police claimed to have arrested a man, identified as Shaheryar, from the Ghala Mandi area near Kohat Road on charges of killing Singh.

Police had claimed that Shaheryar, who is a resident of Kagawala area of the city, was the prime accused in the case and had divulged information about his other accomplices.

“This man has been involved in many cases of target killing and he has provided important information about his aides as well,” the police had said.

Based on information provided by Shaheryar, a police team raided a suspected hideout on June 21 and arrested a second suspect, Tariq Khan, from the Badabher area of the city.

The police statement said that they had booked Tariq under the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997.