Lack Of Evidence: ATC returns Malala’s case to police

SWAT: An anti-terrorism court returned on Tuesday Malala Yousufzai’s attempted assassination case to the police, saying there wasn’t enough evidence. According to officials at the Saidu Sharif police station, the public prosecutor said that without proper evidence, the case does not meet court requirements. “The case is without evidence and cannot be processed in court,” said Advocate Syed Karim Shilmani. “The public prosecutor has to submit challan under section 172 of the code of criminal procedure against the accused, but since the FIR has been registered under unidentified persons, and since there is no additional evidence, the case is deficient.” The senior public prosecutor, Syed Naeem Khan, declined to comment. Yousufzai, the iconic child activist, was shot in the head on her way home from school on October 9, 2012. The FIR was filed in the Saidu Sharif police station under sections 324, 109, 25 and 34 of the Pakistan Penal Code, to be read with section 7 of the Anti Terrorism Act, 1997.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 6^th, 2013.