Appeal: Baba Jan moves G-B Chief Court against ATC ruling

ATC postpones verdict on another FIR against the activist for attacking SHO’s residence.


Shabbir Mir September 30, 2014

GILGIT: Vice president of Awami Workers Party (AWP) Baba Jan has filed an appeal in an upper court in Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) against an anti-terrorism court’s (ATC) decision to sentence him, as well as 11 others, to life imprisonment. Advocate Ehsan Ali, a senior lawyer, filed the appeal in G-B’s chief court.

“We have filed an appeal and are optimistic that justice will be served,” Ali told The Express Tribune. He added, “We have also challenged the appointment of Justice Raja Shehbaz Khan. He has not fulfilled the criteria to be an ATC judge.”

On Monday, Jan appeared before the court and voluntarily surrendered to the police. He was taken into custody and shifted to jail.

The ATC had awarded life imprisonment to 12 accused who allegedly vandalized property, attacked public servants and ransacked arms and ammunitions from the police station in Hunza in 2011.

In August 2011, 25 out of the 457 families whose land had been destroyed by the formation of Attabad Lake took to the streets in Aliabad and demanded compensation. The police ended up using tear gas and ammunition to disperse the protesting parties.

Two of the protesters—Afzal Baig and his father Sherullah Baig—were shot dead. Riots erupted in Hunza Valley and protesters torched government offices and looted a police station in Aliabad.

Verdict delayed

The ATC has postponed the verdict on another FIR against Baba Jan.

“It will now announce its decision on October 14,” said a spokesman of Progressive Youth Front, the AWP’s youth wing. The ATC was expected to deliver its final judgment on the matter on Tuesday, he added. According to the spokesman, the court has not provided a reason for the delay.

This FIR deals with an attack on an SHO’s residence. Baba Jan has denied the charges.

Jan is the vice president of AWP which formed after three leftist parties merged in 2012: Labour Party, Workers Party and Awami Party. The rest of those convicted are activists of AWP’s youth wing, Progressive Youth Front.

Jan has been associated with a movement demanding autonomy for G-B and at the very least an independently elected legislative body which allows for control over natural resources and the income generated from them.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 1st, 2014.

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