LAHORE: A Lahore High Court division bench on Tuesday upheld death penalty handed down to three men for their role in Police Emergency Rescue Service-15 building suicide attack.

The bench comprising Justice Sadaqat Ali Khan and Justice Shehram Sarwar dismissed appeals against the sentence filed by convicts Abid Akram, Sarfraz and Shabbir.

Counsel for the convicts argued that his clients were already in custody of law enforcement agencies when the suicide attack took place in 2009.

He said the FIR of the incident was lodged against unidentified suspects while the convicts were later implicated in the case.

The counsel argued that though prosecution failed to produce any direct or independent evidence against the convicts, the trial court awarded death sentence to them.

He asked the bench to set aside the conviction and acquit the convicts.

Opposing the appeals, a deputy public prosecutor argued that the convicts were the facilitators of the attack. He said Shahdara police had arrested the convicts on Dec 3, 2010 and during the interrogation they (convicts) confessed to their involvement in the Rescue-15 suicide attack.

The prosecutor further stated that police had also recovered weapons from the convicts’ possession. He said the trial court had handed down the death penalty to the convicts in the light of convincing evidence produced by the prosecution.

After hearing both sides, the bench dismissed the appeals and upheld the conviction of the appellants.

An anti-terrorism court had on Jan 30, 2015 handed down death penalty to each convict on 23 counts. At least 26 people, including security personnel, had lost their lives in the attack while over 300 were injured.

Published in Dawn, May 3rd, 2017