KHAIRPUR: The Khairpur Antiterrorism Court (ATC) on Thursday sentenced four persons to death after finding them guilty of killing a policeman in a shoot-out in Faiz Ganj taluka on June 30, 2014.

The police constable, Jam Khan Jogi, was seriously wounded in the shoot-out with a gang of criminals at a section of the Mehran Highway falling within the jurisdiction of the Kot Lalu police station. The victim died in a local hospital two days later. An FIR registered against Zameer Rajpar, Mehboob Rajpar, Akbar Khaskheli and his brother Pyaro Khaskheli accused the gangsters of killing the constable and taking away official weapons of his other colleagues following the shoot-out.

All four accused were sentenced to death and were ordered to pay a fine of Rs200,000 each which would be paid to the bereaved family as compensation. The ATC also sentenced each of the convicts to seven years’ imprisonment and ordered them to pay a fine of Rs10,000 for illegal weapons. In case of default on fine amount, each of them would have to undergo an additional imprisonment of three months, the verdict said.

Meanwhile, Khairpur jail superintendent Afaq Shah told this reporter that the convicts were sent to the Central Prison, Sukkur, as those sentenced to capital punishment were not kept at the Khairpur jail.

Published in Dawn, March 17th, 2017