GUJRANWALA: A local anti-terrorism court convicted on Tuesday night 22 people, nine policemen among them, in a case relating to the lynching of two brothers in Sialkot.
The court sentenced seven of the convicts to death on four counts, gave life-term on four counts to six of them and jailed nine policemen, including a former district police officer, for three years.
The court acquitted five co-accused on grounds of insufficient evidence.
The brothers, Hafiz Muneeb and Hafiz Mughees, were lynched by a violent mob on Aug 15 last year outside the office of Rescue-1122 in Buttar village, near Sialkot, in the presence of police.
Police registered an FIR the same day in which the two brothers had been accused of committing murder and robbery. A second FIR was registered after a video of the lynching was aired on different TV channels.
The Supreme Court had also taken notice of the incident.
ATC judge Chaudhry Mushtaq Ahmad sentenced to death on four counts Ali Raza alias Peter, Muhammad Iqbal, Jameel alias Jeela, Shafeeq alias Foji, Sarfraz Ahmad, Rashid and Muhammad Amin under section 302 of the PPC and 7ATA. They werealso fined Rs500,000 each.
Life-term on four counts with a fine of Rs300,000 each was given to Muhammad Waris, Jamshed alias Sheeda, Hassan Raza, Qaiser alias Mooda, Ateeb alias Nosha and Asgher Ali.
Three years imprisonment under section 155C with a fine of Rs50,000 each was awarded to former Sialkot DPO Waqar Ahmad Chohan, former SHO Inspector Rana Ilyas, ASI Waris and constables Mubarak Ali, Tariq Mahmood, Muhammad Akram, Naseer Ahmed, Muhammad Yasin, and Muhammad Bashir.
Another accused in the case, Constable Nazir Hussain, died of heart attack three days ago.
The court acquitted Muhammad Awais, Asgher, Shammas, Nadeem and Ikram.
The judge completed the hearing at 1pm, reserved its judgment and announced the verdict at about 11pm. The accused were locked up before the announcement of the verdict.
Talking to Dawn, the family of Mughees and Muneeb said they were satisfied with the verdict.