KARACHI, Feb 24: An anti-terrorism court sentenced on Monday two men to death for kidnapping a boy for ransom.

Judge Arshad Noor Khan of the ATC-3 also ordered the confiscation of entire movable and immovable properties of Mohammed Rafique and Abdul Ghaffar, who had kidnapped a college student and demanded Rs1.2 million for his release.

Accused Rafique, who had also criminally assaulted the hostage, was also handed down a 10-year rigorous imprisonment for the offence. He was also fined Rs25,000 and in case of default on the payment would have to undergo an additional one- year term.

The two accused, both from Punjab, had kidnapped the boy on December 19, last year in the limits of the Al- Fallah police.

The judge also sentenced the two to serve a seven-year term for possessing unlicensed weapons. A fine of Rs25,000 each was also imposed on them and the judge ordered that the defaulter on the payment would have to undergo an additional two-year term.

The boy, a first-year student, was on way to his college when Rafique, who hailed from the victim’s hometown, Liyyah, took him along on the pretext of showing his house in the city.

The accused kept the kidnapped young man in a house in Hazrat Bilal Colony in Korangi and demanded Rs1.2 million for the release of the hostage.

Rafique was arrested red-handed on December 22 in Saddar, where he had reached to receive the ransom money from the victim’s father.

Later, Rafique led to the recovery of the kidnapped and the arrest of co-accused Ghaffar.

Special Public Prosecutor Naimat Ali Randhawa examined in all six prosecution witnesses, including Muhammed Hanif and Irfan Nadim, the father and the brother-in-law of the victim respectively.

SALIM QADRI CASE: The ATC-1, headed by Judge Aley Maqbool Rizvi, recorded on Monday the statement of a prosecution witness in the murder case of Maulana Salim Qadri, chief of the Sunni Tehreek.