KARACHI: An anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Tuesday sentenced two men to death for kidnapping for ransom two teenage brothers.
The ATC-VI judge, who conducted the trial, found accused Riaz Ahmed and Aijaz Ahmed guilty and sentenced them to death on two counts for kidnapping and on the charge of terrorism.
According to the prosecution, the two accused had in Oct 2023 offered to provide jobs to Rehan, 18, and Rizwan, 14, at a spices factory in Sukkur, with monthly salaries between Rs25,000 and Rs32,000.
Trusting the convicts, their father, the complainant, accepted the offer, and both brothers went to Sukkur with them. However, instead of providing them with jobs, the convicts abducted the brothers and took them to the riverine area, where they were tied up and forcibly confined.
Prosecution says convicts deceived two teenagers with false promises of jobs and took them to riverine area
Later, they demanded Rs6 million ransom from the complainant and threatened to kill the brothers if the amount was not paid, the prosecution added.
After a month of negotiations, the convicts agreed to accept Rs500,000 in ransom and shifted the teenage brothers to a house in Karachi. However, after gathering information about their whereabouts, the police raided the house, arrested the two convicts after a shoot-out and recovered the abductees.
Four FIRs were registered against them under Sections 365-A (kidnapping or abducting for extorting property, valuable security, etc), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 324 (attempted murder) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act and Section 23 (A) (i) of the Sindh Arms Act.
Published in Dawn, October 28th, 2026
