KARACHI, April 18: The Sindh High Court dismissed on Tuesday appeals moved by two accused against their conviction in a kidnapping-for-ransom case, but commuted the death sentence of one of them to life imprisonment.
Abdul Ghaffar and Mohammad Rafiq were sentenced to death by an anti-terrorism court of Karachi in February 2003 for kidnapping a boy, Mohammad Abid, for ransom. The trial court also awarded 10 years’ jail to Ghaffar for committing sodomy with the boy.
The prosecution charged that the appellants kidnapped Abid on Dec 19, 2002, from Al-Falah in Karachi and demanded Rs 1.2 million as ransom from his family. The police arrested Ghaffar while receiving a token amount as ransom in Saddar and on information given by him recovered the boy from a house in Korangi. Rafiq, who held the boy in custody, was also arrested from the house.
An SHC division bench, comprising Justices Rehmat Hussain Jafri and Ali Sain Dino Metlo, heard appeals. After hearing the arguments advanced by the counsel for the appellants and the prosecution, the bench dismissed the appeals but commuted the death sentence awarded to Rafiq to life term.
The bench, meanwhile, adjourned hearing of appeals moved by Ahmed Omer Sheikh and others in US Journalist Daniel Pearle’s kidnapping and murder case due to absence of some of the defence counsel.
The main accused Ahmed Omer Sheikh was sentenced to death while co-accused Fahad Naseem, Syed Salman Saqib and Sheikh Mohammad Adil were sentenced to life imprisonment with fine amounting to Rs 500,000 each by an anti-terrorism court of Hyderabad on July 15, 2002. While the convicts challenged their conviction and sentences, the state moved an appeal for enhancement of the sentences awarded to the three co-accused.
Mengal’s case: The Sindh High Court adjourned on Tuesday the hearing of a petition against the alleged besieging of the houses of former Balochistan chief minister Sardar Akhter Mengal and his brother to April 21 to enable a federal attorney to seek information from the federal agencies.
Advocates Akhtar Hussain and Syed Ghulam Shah stated that daytime siege had been lifted since the previous date, there was no let-up in the nocturnal surveillance and harassment. A number of uniformed men, the counsel said, surrounded the two houses during the night despite a court order for withdrawal of law enforcement personnel from outside the two houses.
Additional Advocate-General Sarwar Khan, who was accompanied by the Saddar town police officer and the Darakhshan station house officer, submitted that the police had nothing to do with the alleged siege. They could not say anything on behalf of the federal agencies.
A division bench, comprising Chief Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed and Justice Nadeem Azhar Siddiqui, asked the federal government standing counsel, Mahmood Alam Rizvi, about the federal agencies’ involvement. The counsel sought time to seek information from the federal government and the bench adjourned the hearing to April 21.
The petition has been moved by Mir Mehrullah Mengal, uncle of Akhtar Mengal, who is president of the Balochistan National Party. He said the houses of the ex-CM and his brother, Jawed Mengal, in the Defence Housing Society were under siege and the inmates were not being allowed to move about freely.
