Kidnapping quintet get two life sentences each

They had abducted an 18 years old boy and were convicted of kidnapping

RAWALPINDI: An anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Tuesday handed down two life sentences on two counts to each of five men after they were convicted for kidnapping a teenager for ransom from Wah cantonment area.

ATC Special Judge  Asif Majeed Awan convicted Talat Mahmood, Sohail Altaf, Ali Raza, Adnan, and Haroon for kidnapping 18-year-old Muhammad Nadeem Afzal and gave them life imprisonment.

The court granted two life sentences each for one count of kidnapping and one count of terrorism.

The convicts, aging from 20 to 25 years, kidnapped Afzal from his house and later sent a ransom note demanding a Rs40 million for his safe return. One of kidnapers was also said to be a close friend of the victim.

The teenager was kidnapped on June 28, 2014 and his father Muhammad Iftikhar lodged an FIR with the Wah Saddar police the next day.

A few days later, the police recovered the victim from a village in Faisalabad and arrested the kidnappers.

Meanwhile the Ratta Amral police reportedly recovered a missing three-year-old boy from Ghari Habibullah, Mansehra district, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

A police officer on condition of anonymity said that three-year-old S* was kidnapped from Dhoke Hassu a few days ago.

*Name changed to protect identity 

Published in The Express Tribune, August 24^th, 2016.