PESHAWAR: A local court has convicted a man of killing three people, including a prayer leader, inside a mosque here over a property dispute and awarded death sentence and Rs600,000 fine to him.

The amount of fine will be paid to the legal heirs of the deceased as compensation, pronounced additional district and sessions judge Aftab Iqbal in the verdict.

The court declared that the prosecution had proved the charge against the accused, Fazal Rabi, a resident of Pajjagi Road in Peshawar, as the evidence available on record connected him with the commission of the offence.

It also handed down four-year rigorous imprisonment and Rs50,000 fine to him for attempting to murder the complainant in the case.

The court, however, acquitted three co-accused, including Said Ali, Shah Faisal and Amjad Ali, who faced the abetment charge, due to a lack of evidence.

It ordered the filing of a reference with the Peshawar High Court under Section 374 of the Code of Criminal Procedure for confirming the death sentence for accused Fazal Rabi.

The FIR of mosque killings was registered at the Agha Mirjani Shah police station on April 20, 2020, on the complaint of cleric Qari Mohammad Haneef, who had locked the mosque from outside after the gun attack.

The police claimed that when they received the information about the killings, they reached the mosque and found the four accused to be locked inside and bodies of Qari Mohammad Younas, Javed and his son, Adil, lying there.

The complainant had told the police that the prime accused was the brother of deceased Javed and that the two had a property dispute.

Published in Dawn, January 25th, 2023