MIANWALI, June 2 An Anti-Terrorism Court awarded death sentence to four women and a man with a Rs0.2 million fine to each of them for killing a trader's wife and his two minor sons during a house dacoity at Piplan a year ago. Three of the convicted women are sisters.

On July 30, 2009, Nasreen Waheed, wife of Abdul Waheed Siddiqui, a trader of Piplan, along with her eight-year-old twin sons, Asif and Hamad, was murdered during a dacoity in her house. Police, after a thorough investigation, took the neighbours of the victim family in custody who confessed to having committed the crime.

Consequently, the police booked three sisters Tasneem, Kishwar and Saba, along with their brother, Nauman, and their relatives, Shazia, Naila and Iqbal, under sections 412, 449, 396, 398, 302, 201 of the PPC and 7-ATA.

The case was referred to ATC, Sargodha, where Judge Mian Muhammad Anwar Nazir handed down the sentence to four of the accused while acquitting Iqbal and Naila by giving them the benefit of the doubt.

DPO Abdul Jabbar Rana said the case was a challenge for the police, appreciating the investigators who traced the culprits. He said the court verdict was a warning for the criminals that they could not escape punishment.