February 4, 2003	Tuesday	Zul Hijjah 2,1423

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

RAWALPINDI, Feb 3: The judge of anti-terrorist court No. 2, Safdar Hussain Malik, on Monday awarded death sentence on two counts to four persons for kidnapping and killing a medical college student.

The convicts include two students of the same medical college.

The court also ordered confiscation of property of the convicts, Sajjad Ahmed, Bilal Durrani, Dr Qaisar and Khazir Rehman. The court also imposed a fine of Rs100,000 on each of the convicts.

In default of the fine, which would go to the bereaved family as compensation, each convict would have to undergo an additional six-month rigorous imprisonment.

According to the prosecution, Sajjad Ahmed and Bilal Durrani, who were the students of a medical college in Industrial Area, I-9, had kidnapped their roommate, Junaid Altaf, and took him to Charsadda. The convicts, through e-mail, demanded $10 million ransom from the victim’s parents, who were settled in Canada.

After realising that their demands would not be met, both the convicts strangulated Junaid, whose decomposed body was later found on the bank of a river in Nowshehra.

The victim’s father, Altaf Butt, told the court that he did not receive any e-mail and was not aware of the kidnapping till the police informed him.

IMPRISONMENT: The civil judge and judicial magistrate, Hasnain Qadir Ghillo, awarded three-year rigorous imprisonment each to three persons for committing burglary at a house.

The court also imposed a Rs2,000 fine on each of the convicts, Imran Shaukat, Mohammad Imtiaz and Mohammad Younas. In case they are unable to pay the fine, they would have to undergo another 15 days of jail-term.

The court also awarded an additional six-month rigorous imprisonment to Mohammad Younas for having an illegal weapon.

The New Town police had booked the convicts after recovering some stolen valuables from their possessions. The convicts had confessed their crimes in the court.

Meanwhile, the additional district and sessions judge, Malik Akram Awan, awarded six months of rigorous imprisonment to a drug-peddler. The court also imposed a fine of Rs5,000 on the convict, Mohammad Arif. The Waras Khan police had booked the convict for possessing 120grams of charas.