With the hearing of the Mashal Khan murder case completing, an Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Abbottabad reserved its decision, which will be announced on February 7.
After the defence lawyers completed their arguments on Saturday, the ATC Judge Fazl Subhan hearing the case in the heavily secured Haripur Central Jail reserved the court’s judgement on the lynching incident that had shaken the country in 2017.
Mashal, 23, a student at the Abdul Wali Khan University (AWKU) in Mardan, was beaten and shot to death on April 13 by an unruly mob instigated by rumours that he had committed blasphemy by posting sacrilegious content online.
On the application of the victim’s father seeking the transfer of the case owing to its sensitivity, the Peshawar High Court had transferred it from Mardan to ATC Abbottabad that heard the case in the Haripur Jail.
After charging the 57 arrested men, the ATC that started hearing the case back in September 2017 had also rejected the bail applications of those arrested.
While Mashal’s father Iqbal Khan, his friends and teachers also recorded their statements before the ATC, the court hearing to almost 50 witnesses, completed the hearing in five months and ten days.