‘Facilitators’ who are found to be involved in helping terrorists are liable to receive death penalty according to law of the land, and those arrested by security forces for Bacha Khan University carnage will be dealt with accordingly, senior legal experts said on Sunday.
Salim Shah Hoti, a senior lawyer, said that military courts were set up after the passage of the 21st Amendment in January 2015 in order to proceed with terror-related cases.
After lifting of the moratorium on death penalty through an executive order by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif after Army Public School attack in December 2014, courts were authorised to award death sentence to the facilitators, abettors and handlers of terrorists without any distinction, Hot said.
He said that the Interior Ministry would send the case of the facilitators, arrested by security forces for involvement in the attack on Bacha Khan University, to the military courts for their trial.
Shabbir Khalil, another lawyer, was quoted by the news agency as saying that facilitators should be tried under due process of law. The facilitators should be given counsel to defend themselves in order to ensure a fair trial, he added.
Mukhtiar Ali said that the legal fraternity had no sympathy for the facilitators but they wanted to ensure a fair trial for them also. “We fully support execution of the facilitators and their handlers who willfully extend support and assistance to terrorists”, he added.