PHC upholds sentence of four terror convicts

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday upheld sentence of four terror convicts belonging to Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).A two-member special bench comprising Justice Abdul Latif Khan and Justice Syed Afsar Shah maintained the 14 years conviction to each of the four terror convicts.
The anti-terrorism court, Peshawar, had awarded 14-year rigorous imprisonment to the four terror convicts, including Niazbeen, Sheraz, Asif and Haji Habib in 2014. They had moved the PHC against the verdict.
As per the first information report (FIR) lodged in the Matani Police Station on October 27, 2013, a police party raided a hujra or male guesthouse in Matani area and arrested the four terrorists along with 840 kg explosive materials, one Kalashnikov and pistols.
Counsel for the appellants submitted before the bench that the police had recovered the explosives and arms from the hujra of Khalid, a commander of the banned militant organisation, TTP.
He claimed the convicts had nothing to do with the explosives and arms. He further submitted that the appellants belonged to Badaber area of the city and they only visited the hujra. He stated that the police had implicated his clients in the false case on the basis of which the anti-terrorism court awarded them sentences.
He requested the bench to set aside the trial court’s verdict as they were falsely charged in the terrorism case.Assistant Advocate General (AAG) Sikandar Hayat Shah defended the sentence to the terror convicts.
He submitted that recovery of the explosives and arms were made from the convicts on the spot. The AAG pointed out that one of the convicts, Niazbeen, had confessed to links with the TTP. PHC Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel had formed the special bench for quick disposal of the appeals of terror convicts on the directives of the Supreme Court.
After the attack on the Army Public School and College, the Supreme Court called an emergency meeting of all the high courts’ chief justices and monitoring judges of terrorism courts.In the meeting, it was decided to dispose of the terror convicts’ pending appeals in high courts across the country within one or two weeks.
There were 21 pending appeals by convicts in the PHC. Out of these 19 appeals against conviction were decided.Of these 19, nine terror convicts were acquitted and sentence for five others were maintained by the court.