An appeal to subject Mashal Khan’s murderers to a ruthless sentence heard by the Supreme Court

What happened: On Jan 11, the Supreme Court accepted to hear a plea, filed by the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa seeking to increase the sentences of those convicted in the 2017 lynching of Mardan university student, Mashal Khan. Details: The appeals were filed against the Nov 2020 verdict in which the Peshawar High Court commuted the death sentence awarded to the prime culprit, Imran Ali, but upheld the jail terms handed down to 32 others.  The plea: During the hearing, the Additional Advocate General argued that digital proof of Mashal Khan’s lynching was available and had been certified by the Punjab Forensic Science Agency, alongwith eight confessional statements. Furthermore, the AAG claimed that the prosecution had established the case beyond a reasonable doubt, and that the sentences of the 26 defendants, who were sentenced to three years in prison, were likely to be increased.  Who was Mashal Khan: Mashal Khan was 23-year-old student at Abdul Wali Khan University in Mardan’s Department of Mass Communication, who was murdered and shot by a mob on April 13, 2017 after being accused of blasphemy. The claims were later ruled to be false by 13-member joint inquiry panel in June 2017, as they were used as a pretext to instigate violence against him.

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