Mashal Khan case: Prime suspect Arif pleads not guilty to charges

PESHAWAR: The prime suspect in Mashal Khan murder case, Arif Khan, has pleaded not guilty to the charges brought against him by an Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) on Monday.

In April last year, Mashal Khan,  a student of Abdul Wali Khan University in Mardan, was lynched by an angry mob for allegedly “publishing blasphemous content online.”

The court sent the suspect on 14-day judicial remand.

In a video surfaced after the lynching of Mashal, Arif was seen warning a crowd to keep the name of the person who shot Mashal a secret.

Arif, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) tehsil councilor, was arrested from Mardan by a special action police team last week. The sources have stated that he fled to Turkey after the lynching and was arrested once he came back to his home recently, 10 months after the lynching.

Last month, an Abbottabad ATC handed death penalty to the man, Imran Ali, who shot Mashal Khan, on two accounts. Five other accused were handed multiple terms of the life imprisonment, and 25 were given jail sentences. The other 26 accused were acquitted due to lack of evidence.

The family of Mashal Khan, however, expressed dissatisfaction over the verdict terming it “incomplete justice.”

Muhammad Iqbal, the father of Mashal Khan, filed additional appeals against ATC verdict in Peshawar High Court (PHC) challenging the acquittal of 26 suspects. The appeals also called for the conviction and punishment of the 25 accused, given three-year jail time.

Later in February, the PHC, however, suspended three-year jail sentences given to 25 accused and ordered their release on bail.