PESHAWAR: Iqbal Khan on Friday said that the Haripur anti-terrorism court (ATC) announced its verdict in Mashal Khan case in absence of lawyer and family members of the slain. Speaking to a press conference, Iqbal Khan opposed the court’s decision to acquit 26 accused in Mashal Khan murder case, adding that it was ‘inappropriate’ to free those accused of terrorism. The slain’s father alleged that the Khyber-Pakhtunkwa government had provided the family with a lawyer, but have yet to pay his fee. He also requested the Supreme Court to take another suo moto against the accused. Referring to the arrest on Thursday of the main accused, Arif Khan, Iqbal said that the arrest was delayed ‘deliberately’ to eliminate chances of a strict punishment for the accused. Prime accused in Mashal Khan murder case Arif Khan was on Thursday arrested from Mardan after he came back from a ‘foreign country’. The arrest was made from Mardan’s Ring Road Chamkar area by a special operations team of the police. In a video that surfaced after Mardan university student Mashal Khan’s lynching last April, Arif, who was also a councillor from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), could be seen boasting about his involvement in the murder.