KARACHI: A former district and sessions judge, along with another accused, has been sentenced to death for the murder of a son of his fellow district and sessions judge in Hyderabad. The motive for the murder appeared to be honour.

Sikandar Lashari, former district and sessions judge in Mithi, and Irfan Khan aka Fahim were found guilty of masterminding the murder of 19-year-old Aqib Shahani, son of his fellow district and sessions judge Khalid Hussain Shahani, in Hyderabad on Feb 19, 2014.

The ATC-II Karachi judge on Saturday announced her verdict which was earlier reserved after recording evidence and final arguments from both sides.

The motive for the 2014 killing in Hyderabad is said to be honour

The judge observed in her order that all the offences for which the two accused were charged had been proved. It had been proved that accused Lashari was the mastermind of the murder and that he had planned the murder and hired criminals to kill him, noted the judge in the order.

Lashari had a motive to kill Aqib as he had relations with his daughter, the judge said in the order, adding the motive appeared to be honour.

Lashari and Irfan have also been convicted of providing arms to the hired killers, under Sections 23(i)-A, 24 and 25 of the Sindh Arms Act, 2013 and sentenced to 14 years imprisonment.

Both convicts have been ordered to pay Rs1.5 million as compensation to the legal heirs of the deceased in case their death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment and on default serve imprisonment for two years. Their sentences will run concurrently. The court kept the case against four absconding co-accused — Barkat Lashari, Ghulam Abbas Siyal, Iqbal Punjabi and DPC Morchand — as dormant file. They had been declared proclaimed offenders by the court.

Aqib aka Kashif was a second year student at Hamdard University in Karachi, according to the prosecution. On the night of the incident, he was driving his car when gunmen in another vehicle intercepted him on Thandi Sarak, took him out of the car and sprayed him with bullets. Aqib’s mother Shamsun Nisar, sisters Komal and Nimra, younger brother Adil and a cousin Hunain Tariq were with him in the car. The killers pumped 15 to 16 bullets in the body of Aqib and fled. “The killers thrashed the body of Aqib with bullets, even when he had fallen on the ground to terrorise not only his family, but the public at large,” the judge observed.

Published in Dawn, September 30th, 2018