ISLAMABAD, Sept 21: The Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal of three students belonging to Islami Jamiat Talaba (IJT) and upheld the Sindh High Court verdict giving life sentence to the accused for their involvement in the murder of principal of Jamia Millia Iftikharuddin Danish and his son.

The full bench of the court comprising Justice Rana Bhagwandas, Justice Nasirul Mulk and Justice Syed Jamshed Ali heard the case.

Three students — Malik Sohail, Mubinul Haq and Sirajul Haq — who belonged to IJT were accused of killing the principal and his son in their home for their refusal to give donation. These accused were arrested a week after the murder while the son of principal Kamaran Danish had lodged FIR against unknown assailants.

Earlier, the trial court had convicted and sentenced the accused to life term and the Sindh High Court had upheld the judgment.

Sardar Latif Khosa filed a writ petition against the sentence pleading that the students had been implicated in the murder case at the behest of an influential political party.

The IG Sindh had ordered a fresh inquiry into the case in 1999. Police sources had confirmed that Professor Danish was killed by Zubair Siddiqui alias Qasim alias Ali under the directives of Nine Zero. Shakir and Asghar occupied a car forcibly and moved to the house of slain professor. They called the professor and opened firing as soon as the professor and his son came out. Abdul Rehman Danish, son of the professor died on way to hospital and the professor succumbed to injuries at the hospital. Shakir and Asghar fled away. Zubair, the third accomplice of the killers took them away in the car from the scene.

Latif Khosa contended that wife of the principal had not seen the accused and she was forced to give statement against the three students. They were not even brought before her for an identification parade. MQM was doing so to divert the attention of others from terror-related acts. “I want to refer to four cases of supreme court,’’ he said.

Justice Bhagwandas said changes came with the changes in time. Leave these references.—Online