ATC awards death penalty to six convicts

• ATC awards life imprisonment to 9 convicts.
• Whereas 72 convicts have been awarded two-year imprisonment.
• Anti-terrorism courtroom accomplished trial of the case in Kot Lakhpat Jail.

LAHORE: An Anti-Terrorism Court docket (ATC) on Monday sentenced six accused to capital punishment for his or her involvement within the homicide of the Sri Lankan manufacturing facility supervisor Priyantha Kumara.

A complete of 89 males have been indicted within the homicide case, of which 9 are minors. Amongst these, the courtroom has awarded life imprisonment to 9, whereas 72 convicts have been awarded two years of jail time.

In the meantime, one convict — Ali Asghar — was awarded a sentence of 5 years and one individual has been acquitted within the case.

Final 12 months, a brutal mob beat to loss of life and set alight Priyantha Kumara, a 48-year-old Sri Lankan citizen and manufacturing facility supervisor in Punjab’s metropolis of Sialkot. The then prime minister Imran Khan had condemned the vigilante violence and vowed to carry the perpetrators to justice.

The anti-terrorism courtroom accomplished the trial of the case in Kot Lakhpat Jail. Each the prosecution and the defence had concluded their arguments within the case that was heard every day. The statements of the investigation officers and eyewitnesses had additionally been recorded.

Through the trial, presided over by decide Natasha Naseem, the prosecution had delivered to courtroom 46 eyewitnesses. Moreover, it submitted as proof the CCTV footage of 10 cameras put in on the website of the homicide, in addition to movies taken from the cellphones of 55 accused males.

The investigation and trial had been accomplished by a five-member crew headed by public prosecutor Abdul Rauf Wattoo.

What occurred?

Kumara, working as a supervisor at a non-public manufacturing facility in Sialkot, was crushed to loss of life in December by a mob after being accused of blasphemy in extremely controversial circumstances.

Employees of a garment business, which was situated on Sialkot’s Wazirabad Street, had alleged that the foreigner had dedicated blasphemy, reportedly after he tore down some posters from the manufacturing facility’s partitions forward of a scheduled inspection.

The mob subsequently murdered him and set his physique on hearth.

The mob had additionally vandalised the manufacturing facility and blocked site visitors, in accordance with police.

The brutal homicide had elicited shock and drawn widespread condemnation from the Pakistani citizenry, senior authorities functionaries, together with the prime minister and president, in addition to the army’s high management, who promised to carry all these concerned to the e-book.

Police had subsequently arrested greater than 100 suspects for his or her suspected involvement within the case, together with two people described as the principle accused.