PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Wednesday ordered that former Jamaatul Ahrar (JuA) and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan will remain imprisoned.
The victim’s father, in the petition, had asked the court to ensure that Ehsan is not pardoned as he had claimed responsibility for the 2014 attack on Peshawar’s APS in which at least 144 people, mostly children, were killed.
A two-judge bench comprising justices Qaisar Rashid and Ikramullah Khan declared that, “the parents of the victims ─ and not the state– hold the right to pardon him,” as he had taken the responsibility of the attack.
During the hearing, Deputy Attorney General Musaratullah Khan assured the court that the government does not plan to release Ehsan anyway as he is already undergoing an inquiry.
Fazal Khan, whose son Sahibzada Umar Khan, an eighth-grader, was killed in the APS carnage, petitioned the Peshawar High Court May 9, asking it to direct the government to put Ehsan on trial in a military court.
“We have heard that he was receiving clemency,” Khan had said. “Pardoning the killer of 148 people will enrage the families of APS martyrs.”
“We are hopeful that justice will prevail and terrorists who were responsible for the massacre will be severely punished,” he said. “The government must take the APS culprits to task.”
Ehsan was the spokesperson of the TTP, which triumphantly claimed responsibility for the massacre the very next day, Khan said. Therefore, the army should try him for terrorism, argued Khan.
