LAHORE: An antiterrorism court on Wednesday awa­rded the death penalty to five convicts, including a prayer leader, for their involvement in the lynching of a Christian couple over alleged blasphemy in Kot Radha Kishan (Kasur) in 2014.

Shahzad Masih and his pregnant wife Shama worked as bonded labourers at a brick kiln owned by Yousuf Gujjar. An angry mob of over 400 people, allegedly led by the kiln owner, brutally killed the couple on charges of blasphemy.

The prosecution said the prayer leader had provoked the villagers against the couple. The mob mercilessly bur­nt the couple alive in the kiln.

The convicts sentenced to death are: Hafiz Ishtiaq, the prayer leader, Mehdi Khan, Riaz Kambo, Mohammad Hanif and Irfan Shakoor.

The presiding judge, Azam Chaudhry, also slapped a fine of Rs200,000 on each of the convicts.

The court also sentenced eight other suspects — Mohammad Hussain, Muhammad Arslan, Mohammad Haris, Noorul Hassan, Mohammad Munir, Mohammad Ramzan and Hafiz Shahid — to two years in jail.

However, it acquitted 93 other suspects, including Yousuf Gujjar, as charges were not established against them.

Deputy Prosecutor General Waqar Abid Bhatti said the prosecution presented 25 witnesses during the trial of the 106 indicted suspects.

In a last year hearing on bail petitions of some of the suspects, the Supreme Court had expressed serious concern over the role of the local police during the brutal killing of the Christian couple.

The court observed that police personnel had acted as a silent spectator and let the mob lynch the couple. Had the police fired a single shot in the air, the lives of the couple could have been saved.

Published in Dawn, November 24th, 2016