HARIPUR: A member of the prosecution team pursuing Mashal Khan’s murder case has quit from the legal team citing personal reasons.
Zafar Abbas was appointed as the Deputy Director Prosecution for Mashal Khan’s trial by the provincial government.
The prosecutor had already been de-notified by the legal team a month ago, according to sources.
Objections over the appointment of Zafar Abbas were raised earlier by Mashal Khan’s father Iqbal Khan who said that the lawyer was incompetent to fight a criminal case. A private lawyer fighting the case on Iqbal Khan’s behalf said that prosecutor Abbas had not appeared in any of the case hearings except the first one on September 19.
Mashal Khan, a journalism student at the Abdul Wali Khan University in Mardan, was tortured and lynched in April by a mob over allegations of publishing blasphemous content online.
An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Haripur had indicted 57 people in the case on September 19 and formal hearing of the case began on September 20. Strict security measures have been taken in the vicinity of Haripur jail where the case is being heard.