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PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday commuted the death sentence of the man convicted for the 2017 lynching of university student Mashal Khan, and maintained the convictions and jail terms handed to 32 others.
The convict Imran Ali, who had opened fire on Mashal and was sentenced to death by the trial court, filed an appeal with the court asking it to reduce the sentence.
A two-member bench, comprising Justice Lal Jan Khattak and Justice Syed Attique Shah, announced the verdict through a short order. The PHC granted the appeal filed by convict Imran, converting his death sentence into life imprisonment.
Meanwhile, the court dismissed all other appeals, maintaining the life sentences and jail terms awarded to the 32 other convicts. The court also cancelled the bails granted to 25 convicts who were handed down three-year jail terms and ordered police to arrest them.
The bench had reserved its verdict on September 29 after conducting marathon hearings for seven days in dozens of appeals field by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, Mashal’s father Mohammad Iqbal Khan and 33 of the convicts.
Mashal’s father said he will challenge the PHC verdict in the Supreme Court after consulting his lawyers. “My Mashal Khan cannot return but I am struggling for justice,” he told media representatives.
Mashal Khan, a 23-year-old student of the Department of Mass Communication at the Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan, was lynched by a mob and shot over allegations of blasphemy on April 13, 2017.