PHC orders retrial in Mansehra gang-rape case

MANSEHRA: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) circuit bench at Abbottabad has set aside verdict of an anti-terrorism court in the car gang-rape case and ordered retrial at lower court.
“The high court has asked the district and sessions judge to conduct retrial but without any further evidence and statements,” stated Mohammad Arshad Awan advocate, lawyer for the victim, a first-year student.
The Abbottabad bench, comprising Justice Lal Jan Khattak and Justice Qalandar Ali Khan, after hearing arguments of counsels from both sides, set aside the ATC verdict pronounced on March 6 this year and quashed section 7 of the anti-terrorism act.
The widely condemned gang-rape had taken place on May 12 last year. Qari Naseer and his two accomplices allegedly deceived a first-year student to travel in their car with help of her class fellow and two of them raped her in the moving car from Mansehra to Abbottabad.
The ATC judge had handed down a sentence of 14 years imprisonment to Qari Naseer, Mohammad Faizan while Hussain Mushtaq, who didn’t commit the rape directly but drove the car from Mansehra to Abbottabad, was awarded 10 years imprisonment. Anam Bibi, said to be a class fellow of the victim, was also arrested but she was acquitted by the ATC.
The accused were also present in the court when the two-member circuit bench pronounced verdict on Friday.
Mohammad Arshad Awan and Mustafa Khan pleaded for the victim and Fazal Haq Abbasi, Amjad Shah, Nadeem Khan Swati, Sajjad Afzal and Mohamed Javed represented the accused. Awan said that though the case would be retried in lower court, there would be no evidence and statements now.