Convicted of assassination: Three get death sentence in judge murder case

Justice Tahir Khan was shot dead in Rawalpindi last year

RAWALPINDI: An anti-terrorism court (ATC) here on Wednesday handed down death sentence to three men convicted of murder of Additional District and Sessions Judge Muhammad Tahir Khan Niazi who was shot dead in August last year in the limits of Sadiqabad Police Station.

Special Judge ATC-II Malik Asif Majeed Awan convicted the three and awarded death sentence on two counts to each.

The convicts Rashid alias Chand, resident of Rawalpindi, Aamir Bhatti, resident of Sialkot, and Fiaz alias Mansha, resident of Lahore, were also given life term jail for planning to kill the judge.

The ATC handed down death sentence for the murder.

The trial court also imposed Rs130, 000 as fine on each of the convicts who would have to serve 17 years in jail, if they failed to make the payment.

The ATC also awarded additional two-year jail sentence to Aamir Bhatti for misbehaving with the wife of the slain judge.

Sadiqabad police registered FIR into the case August 5, 2015 on the complaint of Sajjad Khan Niazi, brother of the deceased judge.

Armed men entered the judge’s house located in Satellite Town, apparently to commit robbery and shot Niazi dead before fleeing away.

The police had announced Rs1.7 million reward for anyone who would provide information about the men who killed the judge.

The police had prepared the sketches of the three men following their description by wife of the slain judge.

It was on August 16, 2015, Regional Police Officer (RPO) Muhammad Wisal Fakhar Sultan Raja addressed a press conference saying that three men had been arrested in connection with the murder of the judge.

The RPO had told that the three men were located through their mobile phone data.

The police officer, however, did not disclose the motive behind the murder.

Initially it was learnt that three accused all Christian entered the house of the judge with the motive of robbery and they killed Tahir Niazi when he put up resistance. Later, however, it was known that the three convicts killed the judge who had convicted them in Lahore for their role in drug trafficking.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 9^th, 2016.