June 27, 2007	Wednesday	Jamadi-us-Sani 11, 1428

RAWALPINDI, June 26: Additional District and Sessions Judge Rana Nisar Ahmed Khan on Monday handed down death sentence to a man for killing his friend.

The convict, Sajid Anwar, received death penalty for stabbing to death his friend, Asghar Ali, in a hotel at Murree on November 11, 2005. He has also been fined Rs300,000 and in case of non- payment he will have to undergo six months extra imprisonment. According to details, both the killer and the deceased were intimate friends and both resided in Lahore.

In November 2005, Sajid and Asghar along with another friend Fida Hussain, came to Murree where Sajid booked a room in Shan Guest House introducing himself as Bashir Ahmed, a resident of Jhelum.

Next morning the hotel staff got worried when the three friends did not come out. They called the police who broke open the door and found the body of Asghar Ali lying in a pool of blood with his throat slashed. The two other persons were missing from the scene.

The Murree police registered a case against the suspect and started a search for him. The culprit, Sajid, was arrested from Lahore on December 1, 2005, and was brought to Rawalpindi to face a trail. The other accused is still at large and has been declared a proclaimed offender.

During investigation, it was revealed that Sajid owed some money to Asghar and he started nurturing bad blood towards his friend when he demanded his money. Sajid according to his plan took Asghar to Murree and got rid of his friend by slitting his throat.