Black warrants issued for 7 convicts in lynching case
GUJRANWALA / SIALKOT: An anti-terrorism court issued on Wednesday death warrants of seven condemned prisoners who had lynched two brothers about four and a half years ago, for their execution on April 8.
The convicts had killed Hafiz Mughees Sajjad, 17, and Muneeb Sajjad, 15, by taking them to be robbers in Sialkot city’s congested Doburji Chowk in August 2010.
An anti-terrorism court had sentenced Ali Raza, Shafiq, Sarfraz, Rashid Mehr, Mohammad Amin, Iqbal alias Babu and Jamil alias Jeela to death.
Waris, Hassan, Qaiser, Tayyab, Asghar and Jamshed were jailed for life and then Sialkot District Police Officer Waqar Chohan, Inspector Rana Ilyas, assistant sub-inspector Waris and constables Tariq, Mubarik, Yasin, Bashir Ahmad, Naseer and Akram for three years.
Hangings scheduled for April 8
The convicts moved the Lahore High Court which acquitted all police personnel, but upheld the trial court’s judgment about others.
The family of victims expressed satisfaction over the verdict, but demanded public hanging of the convicts to discourage incidents of lynching in the country.
Khawaja Mohammad Sajjad, father of the ill-fated boys, said the verdict had provided justice to his family.
The families of convicts announced that they would approach the LHC and the Supreme Court against the ATC’s order for issuing the death warrants.
Published in Dawn, April 2nd, 2015
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