KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Wednesday upheld a death sentence awarded to a man in a case pertaining to suicide bombing on an Imambargah in 2005.

An antiterrorism court had sentenced Syed Mohammad Tahseen, said to be an activist of the banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, to death in March 2007 for his involvement in suicide bombing at an Imambargah in Gulshan-i-Iqbal in May 2005 which left three persons, including a policeman, dead and more than 20 others wounded. The trial court had acquitted co-accused Mohammad Altaf for lack of evidence.

The convicts through their lawyer filed appeals against the conviction before the SHC and after hearing both sides and examining the record and proceedings, the two-judge bench headed by Justice K.K. Agha dismissed the appeals and upheld the trial court order.

The convict through his lawyer filed an appeal against the conviction before the SHC while a woman, a relative of one of the victims, also filed an appeal against the acquittal of the co-accused.

After hearing both sides and examining the record and proceedings, the two-judge bench dismissed the appeal of the convict and upheld the death penalty and also turned down the other appeal against the acquittal.

The bench observed that the case against Tahseen stood proved as the eyewitnesses deposed against him, he was arrested from the spot in injured conduction and recovery of weapon was also made from him at the time of arrest. The FSL report said that some recovered empties of pistol found at the crime scene were fired from the same weapon.

However, the case of co-accused was on different footing as he was not arrested from the crime site and no recovery was made from him, it added.

The bench in its order further said that keeping in view the barbaric and brutal nature of the premeditated attack, in which three innocent people were murdered, injuries caused to over 20 others and fear created among a certain segment of society based on religious grounds, the court considered that a case of this nature deserved capital punishment.

Regarding the appeal against acquittal, the bench said that no one has put in an appearance for the appellant for many years despite notice being issued, adding that pre-admission notices were also issued, but the same were recalled as the position remained the same till date and the appeal against acquittal has not been admitted.

However, the bench said that the case of co-accused was different from the convict since no recovery was made from him and the identification parade has already been discharged in this judgement and appeal against acquittal did not justify admission and was dismissed.

Published in Dawn, December 12th, 2019