An anti-terrorism court in Peshawar has issued arrest warrants for deposed Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi and three other leaders of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). The warrants were issued on Wednesday in the May 9, 2023, Radio Pakistan attack case, which concerns the ransacking and burning of the state broadcaster’s building in Peshawar. The other named leaders are Taimur Saleem Jhagra, Kamran Bangash and Irfan Saleem.
Judge Wali Mohammad ordered the warrants after the public prosecutor filed a police challan, or charge sheet, in the case. The violence took place during unrest that followed the arrest of PTI founder and former prime minister Imran Khan. The four leaders were later named as accused, a step the prosecution said rested on forensic findings and identity verification reports.
Court acts on supplementary charge sheet
The latest move follows a supplementary challan submitted earlier this month, which named the four leaders along with PTI activist Amir Khan Chamkani. Police said they nominated the five PTI figures after examining video footage through the Punjab Forensic Science Agency (PFSA) and verifying identities with the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA).
According to the forensic findings cited in court proceedings, the facial features of the suspects matched those of people shown in the videos submitted for examination. The investigation officer, DSP Khushal Khan, had earlier filed a progress report in September naming Afridi, Jhagra, Bangash, Irfan Saleem and Chamkani as accused. Before that, the court had rejected an earlier investigation report as incomplete and inconclusive, instructing the officer to produce a fuller report that included the forensic and identity findings.
On September 24, police submitted another report to Judge Wali Mohammad. He directed the investigating officer to complete the legal steps needed to file the challan. The supplementary charge sheet was then sent to the district public prosecutor’s office and later placed on the court record.
High court rejects prosecutor’s challenge to reports
On September 28, the Peshawar High Court dismissed a petition filed by the special prosecutor, who had challenged the forensic and NADRA reports used to nominate Afridi and other PTI leaders. The prosecutor questioned how the video footage had been submitted for forensic examination, saying the material had arrived on a USB drive. He also argued that the additional accused had not been named in the original challan and had been added later.
Counsel for Radio Pakistan opposed the petition. He argued that the special prosecutor did not have the authority to challenge the reports in the way he had attempted. After hearing both sides, the high court dismissed the petition, which allowed proceedings against the additional accused to continue before the anti-terrorism court.
The forensic evidence, however, remains contested. The defence has questioned whether the videos examined by the PFSA actually showed the Radio Pakistan attack. The laboratory’s reported facial matches indicate similarities between people in the footage and the reference images, but they do not independently establish the circumstances in which the footage was recorded.
Radio Pakistan attack and the trial so far
The case centres on the attack on the historic Radio Pakistan building in Peshawar during protests on May 9 and 10, 2023, after Imran Khan was arrested. The building also housed offices of the Associated Press of Pakistan (APP), and it was ransacked and set on fire during the unrest. A first information report was registered at the East Cantonment Police Station on May 10, 2023, based on a complaint from the then station house officer, Arbab Naeem Haider. It was filed under the Pakistan Penal Code and the Anti-Terrorism Act.
The anti-terrorism court is trying around 75 accused in the case, including serving and former lawmakers. The accused were indicted on multiple charges in June 2025 and pleaded not guilty. The current proceedings focus on the additional suspects named through the supplementary investigation and on the evidence police cited to justify their inclusion.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister’s Adviser on Information Samar Bilour said the arrest warrants issued for Sohail Afridi will be carried out. Speaking to the media in Peshawar, she said the warrants would be followed by action, though she did not spell out the legal or administrative steps involved. She also said the nation stood united in protecting national security and condemned what she called provocative actions by the Afghan Taliban regime at the Angoor Adda bazaar.
Bilour further said that no recommendations or political pressure would be accepted during the ongoing operation against encroachments in the province. She rejected claims that the anti-encroachment drive was aimed at settling scores with anyone, saying it was not being carried out for personal or political revenge.
