PESHAWAR, Feb 06: Peshawar High Court on 6 February granted bail to a juvenile accused after almost three years of his arrest in the 2023 devastating suicide bombing at Peshawar Police Lines which had claimed 84 lives.
Justice Sahibzada Asadullah of a single-member bench accepted plea of the accused on statutory grounds under section 6 of the Juvenile Justice System Act, 2018, as only 10 of the 41 prosecution witnesses have so far been examined in the trial.
Lawyer Shabbir Hussain Gigyani appeared for the petitioner and said that his client was arrested in Mar 2023 on charges of being facilitator in the occurrence.
He pointed out that his bail petition was initially rejected on merit and subsequently in Aug 2024 his plea, seeking bail on ground of delay in conclusion of trial, was also turned down.
Petitioner claims trial delayed due to non-appearance of police witnesses
The counsel said that at the time of rejection of his bail plea, the police official concerned had assured the court that the remaining prosecution witnesses would be produced in the trial within 90 days.
He contended that at that time only 10 witnesses had been examined, and despite the passage of around 18 months and assurance given by the police, no other witnesses had been produced in the trial.
The lawyer referred to Section 6 of the JJSA and said that if the delay in the trial of a juvenile person had not been occasioned by an act or omission of such juvenile, such juvenile should be released on bail if he had been detained for a continuous period exceeding six months and whose trial had not been completed.
Mr Gigyani contended that previously, the court turned down his bail plea on the ground that he was involved in a heinous offence.
He referred to a Supreme Court judgement and argued that the provisions of statutory delay mentioned in section 497 of the Code of Criminal Procedure were not applicable to a juvenile and instead section 6 of the JJSA should be applied.
An additional advocate general and an official of the counter-terrorism department opposed the bail plea, arguing that as the petitioner was arrested in connection with a heinous crime, so he was not entitled to be set free on bail even on ground of statutory delay.
Following the grant of bail to the petitioner, the only defendant left imprisoned in the case is former police constable Mohammad Wali, who is the prime accused facing trial.
On Jan 30, 2023, a suicide bomber targeted a mosque at the highly-guarded Police Lines, causing a portion of the premises to cave in.
Published in Dawn, February 7th, 2026.
