Trio sentenced for seminary teacher's murder

Convicts had accused female teacher of blasphemy after slitting her throat

DI KHAN:

 

DI KHAN. A trial court in Dera Ismail Khan on Monday convicted all three individuals accused of killing a female seminary teacher in March 2022, sentencing two to death and the third to life imprisonment.

Additional Sessions Court II Judge Muhammad Jameel delivered the verdict, also imposing a fine of Rs2 million each on the women facing the death penalty, and a fine of Rs1 million on the minor girl involved in the crime.

Tansir Ali and Advocate Haji Shakil represented the prosecution while Advocate Asad Aziz pursued the case on behalf of the accused.

According to the prosecution, the accused assaulted the 18-year-old teacher as she entered the seminary premises to teach. The victim succumbed to her injuries at the establishment's gate, with her throat slit open.

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The convicts, two real sisters and their cousin, were affiliated with another religious seminary and attempted to give a religious motive to the murder.

The incident occurred on March 29, 2022, at Jamia Islamia Falah Al-Banat in the Anjumabad area on Dera Multan Road around 7 am.

Initial investigations revealed that differences had arisen between the deceased and the accused over religious matters. A report quoting Imtiaz Janjua, a spokesperson for the district police, stated that the assailants believed the slain teacher, Safoora Bibi, had committed blasphemy.

According to the FIR, the three girls - Umra Aman, 24, daughter of Deen Badshah; Razia Hanifia, 21, and Aisha Noman, 17, daughters of Allah Noor - allegedly attacked the teacher with a stick at the seminary gate and later stabbed her in the neck.

The accused students had reportedly informed the police that a religious figure had appeared in the dream of a 13-year-old relative, indicating that the teacher had committed blasphemy. A knife and a stick were recovered from the arrested girls, as stated in the FIR.