SAHIWAL, July 6: Execution of a convict in a murder case had to be postponed in the wake of kidnap of a member of the victim’s family by the accused party. Reports said one Iqbal Bali and his accomplice Talib Hussain killed one Mahmood Ahmed in 1990 over a dispute over turn of irrigation water. Sahiwal additional district and session judge awarded death penalty to the main accused and life imprisonment to his accomplice on October 2, 1994. The high court upheld the decision in 1998 and the Supreme Court rejected the appeal by the convicts on March 29, 2002. A mercy appeal to the president was also turned down on January 24, 2005.

It was learnt that the execution of Iqbal Bali was scheduled for March 29, which was deferred on orders by the president to provide opportunity of reconciliation to the accused party. The wife and the only son of the deceased Mahmood Ahmed had also expired and only his sister was alive among his immediate heir, who refused to reconcile with the accused party.

Talib, who had meanwhile managed to secure his bail, along with 12 accomplices, including Alam Sher, Yunas, Sarwar, Allah Ditta and Anwar, kidnapped the son of the deceased’s sister, Jaffar, after injuring his father Allah Ditta.

The kidnappers threatened the victim’s family that in case Iqbal was hanged in the central jail on July 6, they would murder Jaffar.

The bereaved family was thus forced to appeal to District and Session Judge Dr Riaz Mahmood to defer the execution of Iqbal. As a result, the judge at 2am on Wednesday stopped the execution and ordered the both parties to be presented in the court on July 13.

Harappa police have registered a case of attempt to murder and kidnap etc against the accused under section 364/337, 140/149 PPC on the report of Jaffar’s elder brother Bashir.

Bashir told journalists that the accused party had been hurling murder threats to Jaffar.

The police could neither recover the kidnapped man nor it could arrest the kidnappers despite passage of 24 hours.