PESHAWAR, Nov 16: An anti-terrorism court here on Saturday awarded death sentence to an accused, Waqarul Mulk, in the murder case of a dental surgeon Jawed Iqbal.

The presiding officer, Akhtar Zareef Khan, pronounced that the prosecution had proved its case against the accused beyond any shadow of doubt. Sentencing him under section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997, the court also fined him Rs10,000.

The court directed that the convict should also pay a compensation of Rs150,000 to the deceased’s family. The accused had faced trial for the abduction and killing of Dr Jawed Iqbal, who ran a dental clinic at the Peshawar cantonment.

This was one of the initial cases referred to the anti-terrorism court after it was set up early this year.

Initially, the accused was convicted by the ATC on May 22 and was sentenced to death on two counts. The accused filed an appeal before the Peshawar High Court against the conviction. The high court had remanded the case back to the ATC on the ground that some technical points were overlooked by the court.

The court conducted re-trial and again found the accused guilty of abducting and killing Dr Jawed Iqbal. Interestingly, the court had reserved its verdict two months back but as the court was without a stenographer, verdict could not be pronounced on the last four dates fixed for the announcement of the judgment.

The deceased, Dr Jawed, had disappeared last year on Oct 28, when he was returning home from his clinic. The next day his body was recovered from a deserted area in Hayatabad Township.

Public Prosecutor Sher Mohammad Khan appeared for the state, whereas Advocate Ishtiaq Ibrahim represented the deceased’s family.

The prosecution claimed that the accused was arrested while driving the vehicle of the deceased. It was stated that on the pointation of the accused the mobile phone of the deceased and the pistol used in the offence were recovered.