PESHAWAR, Jan 17: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday upheld death penalty awarded to an appellant by an anti-terrorism court for kidnapping and killing a dental surgeon, Jawed Iqbal.

The bench also directed the appellant, Waqarul Mulq, to pay Rs1,50,000 as diyat to the deceased’s family.

The bench observed that the prosecution had proved its case and the evidence on record was enough to connect the appellant with the commission of the offence.

The appellant was convicted by an anti-terrorism court presided over by Akhter Zareef Khan, on Nov 16, 2002.

The appellant had faced trial for the abduction and killing of Dr Jawed Iqbal, who was running his dental clinic here at Peshawar cantonment.

Initially, the accused was convicted by the ATC on May 22, 2002, and was sentenced to death on two counts. Against that conviction the accused filed an appeal before the Peshawar High Court. The high court had remanded the case back to the ATC on the grounds that some technical points were overlooked by the court.

The court conducted re-trial and again found the accused guilty of abducting and killing Dr Iqbal.

Dr Jawed had disappeared on Oct 28, 2001, when he was returning home from his clinic. The next day his body was recovered from a deserted area in Hayatabad.

Advocate Ishtiaq Ibraheem represented the deceased’s family. The prosecution claimed that the accused was arrested while driving vehicle of the deceased. It was stated that on the pointation of the accused the mobile phone of the deceased and the pistol used in the offence were recovered.

The accused claimed that he was tortured by the police and forced to confess the crime which he had not committed.