LAHORE: A Lahore High Court division bench on Wednesday dismissed appeals of three members of a banned outfit and upheld their death penalties awarded for killing eight constables at a police station in Mianwali.

Deputy prosecutor Khurram Khan opposed the appeals and told the bench that the convicts were found guilty and they had close ties with a banned outfit.

The convicts included Saleemuz Zaman, Abdullah alias Ghazali and Abdul Haye.

The prosecutor said the convicts attacked a police station in Waan Bachran and killed eight constables in 2009.

On the other side, counsel for the convicts denied the charges and said his clients were dragged into the case. He said police registered FIR against them after a delay of one month and did not fulfill many legal formalities including identification parade of the suspects.

The bench dismissed the appeals and upheld the sentence. The trial court had awarded death penalties to the convicts on two counts.

Published in Dawn, January 29th, 2015

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