LAHORE: An anti-terrorism court on Monday handed down seven-year jail terms each to three accused, including a woman, in a case of honey-trapping and kidnapping of playwright Khalilur Rehman Qamar.

ATC-III Judge Arshad Javed announced the verdict, which he had reserved after concluding the trial proceedings last week.

The judge awarded a seven-year jail term to Amna Arooj, Mamnoon Haider and Zeeshan Qayum each.

However, the judge acquitted seven other accused persons for lack of evidence.

The acquitted accused included Tanvir Ahmed, Qaiser Abbas, Rasheed Ahmed, Falak Sher, Mian Khan, Yasir Ali and Javed Iqbal.

All the accused persons were brought to court from jail and the verdict was announced in their presence.

Playwright Qamar was allegedly kidnapped for ransom on July 15 last year and a case was registered under kidnapping and terrorism charges by Sundar police.

During the approximately eight-month-long trial proceedings, 17 prosecution witnesses appeared in the court, including Qamar himself, his friends, police personnel, and bank staff.

One of the accused was released on bail, while Amna Arooj’s bail request had been rejected by the Lahore High Court, which had also ordered the trial to be concluded within one month.

During the trial, the woman accused had taken a plea that both accused Hassan Shah and complainant Qamar blackmailed her.

She said Shah, who was like a brother to her, knew about Qamar’s blackmailing.

She claimed that both men were powerful, and she got trapped between them. She also revealed that Shah leaked a video wherein Qamar was insisting on a relationship with her.

Published in Dawn, April 15th, 2025