KARACHI: An anti-terrorism court sentenced on Monday a man to death and acquitted another in the murder case of a Pakistan Navy guard.

Mohammad Yasir, alias Kala, was found guilty of killing Fayyaz Ali, an employee of the PN, during a robbery in the Defence Housing Authority in April 2014. Co-accused Mohammad Munir was exonerated for lack of evidence.

The ATC-III judge imposed a fine of Rs200,000 on the convict and also directed him to pay a compensation of Rs500,000 to the legal heirs of the dead besides the confiscation of his property.

The court also handed down 10 years imprisonment to Yasir and imposed a fine on him for committing the robbery.

The prosecution said Captain Iftikhar Ahmed of Pak Navy with his driver Khurram Rasheed and guard Fayyaz was on his way to Keamari after drawing cash from a bank in the DHA when the accused persons intercepted their vehicle at a traffic intersection in the DHA and asked the officer to hand over the cash. However, they gunned down Fayyaz when he tried to put up resistance.

The court in its verdict said that the case stood proved against Yasir as both the eyewitnesses deposed against him before the trial court and one of them also righty picked him out during an identification parade before a magistrate.

It further said that the case of the co-accused was on different footing as the prosecution alleged that Munir was present inside the bank and communicated to his accomplices about cash transaction.

The court ruled that the information was leaked from the bank, but Munir was not recognisable in the CCTV footage of the bank, adding that the investigating officer had also not secured the mobile phone data of the co-accused or any other person who allegedly conveyed the information to the main accused.

The FIR was registered at the Defence police station.

Babar Chingari and Moazzam are proclaimed offenders in the case.

Published in Dawn, January 17th, 2017