PESHAWAR Feb 27 (TNS): The Peshawar High Court Abbottabad circuit on Tuesday suspended conviction of 25 people, who were handed down three-year jail term by a trial court in the Mashal Khan murder case, and ordered their release on bail.
On February 7, an ATC handed down Imran Ali, the shooter death sentence, jail term to 25 others and acquitted 26 others in the lynching case.
Mashal Khan, 23, a student of Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, was killed by a fuming mob on April 13, 2017, accusing him of blasphemy.
On February 7, an ATC in Haripur awarded two death sentences to Imran Ali while 25 others were sent to jail for three years along with a fine of Rs50,000 each.
The convicts had challenged their sentence in the PHC and a two-judge bench comprising Justice Lal Jan and Justice Atiq Shah on Tuesday suspended the conviction order and ordered their release on bail after their counsel Syed Akhtar, argued that those convicted for less than three years could be released on bail.
Later the counsel said that he was waiting for a court order to get the convicts released from Haripur jail.
