PESHAWAR: A child protection court has convicted a man in a honour-related triple murder including that of two women and a child of a family and sentenced him to death with fine of Rs900,000.

The court, presided over by Additional District and Sessions Judge Hina Mehwish, ruled that the prosecution successfully proved its case against the accused, Abdullah, a resident of Patwar Payan, Peshawar, and the evidence on record connected him with the commission of the offence.

The court ordered that the fine should be paid to the legal heirs of the deceased persons as compensation.

The convict had slit throats of deceased persons including his female cousin, her mother and her four-year-old nephew. The FIR of the incident was registered at Mathra police station on October 18, 2019, under section 302 (intentional murder) and section 311 (mischief on earth) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Child protection court also imposes a fine of Rs900,000 on him

The complainant in the case was head of the family, who claimed that he had gone outside his residence for some work and when he returned back after some time, he found his wife, daughter and grandson killed by unidentified persons. He claimed that he had no enmity with anyone.

Subsequently, the convict was arrested by the local police after initial investigation and he also confessed to his crime.

The convict claimed that he was in love with his female cousin but was annoyed with her as she was talking to other men by telephone. He stated that on the day of occurrence, he killed his cousin and as her mother and nephew were also at home, therefore, he had also to kill them.

Senior prosecutor Arif Bilal appeared for the state, whereas Malik Ziaul Hassan represented the complainant.

They contended that the accused killed three persons including a minor child in a brutal manner and he did not deserve any leniency. They argued that the evidence on record proved the involvement of the accused in the commission of the offence and he had also confessed to his crime.

The convict’s counsel claimed that his client was a juvenile and he could not be awarded death sentence under the law.

However, the complainant counsel contended that the accused prepared his Computerised National Identity Card in 2019, before the occurrence, which proved that he was not a juvenile.

Published in Dawn, August 26th, 2022