LHC upholds death penalty against 14 gang members

The Multan Bench of Lahore High Court (LHC) has upheld death sentence handed down to 14 members of the Chhotu Gang of the riverine area in a case of killing six policemen.

The court acquitted six other suspects, including Muhammad Hanif, Muhammad Tariq and Muhammad Shafiq, giving them the benefit of the doubt due to lack of evidence.

The case had been registered at the Acha Bangla police station on the complaint of Inspector Pervez Akhtar.

As per the First Information Report, the Chhotu Gang suspects who were proclaimed offenders had opened fire on a police team when it tried to raid their hideout in the Katcha Rojhan area.

The firing resulted in the death of SHO Muhammad Hanif and Constables Ubaidullah, Amanullah, Muhammad Ajmal, Muhammad Tariq and Muhammad Shakeel. Eight other constables had been injured in the incident, including Aftab Ahmed, Saeed Ahmed, Tanveer Hussain, Muhammad Ashfaq, Zabihullah, Haq Nawaz and Saifullah.

The gang had also taken 24 policemen hostage.

Later, the suspects had been arrested and a large quantity of modern weapons and hand grenades had bene seized from their possession.

An anti-terrorism court had sentenced the accused to death on six counts and other punishments.

The LHC Multan Division Bench upheld the death sentence handed down to the 14 accused and acquitted six others due to lack of evidence after hearing arguments from Punjab Additional Prosecutor General Chaudhry Muhammad Akbar

The convicts had filed an appeal against the sentence in the high court.

The appellants included Ghulam Rasool alias Chhotu, Nadir, Deen Muhammad, Khalid Khaldi, Ishaq, Akram, Ghulam Haider, Hakim, Razzaq Majid, Nasir, Sher Khan, Jumma alias Bhutta, Rashid, Bahram, Bashir Abdul Wahid, Mujeebur Rehman, Hussain Bakhsh and Pyara.

The division bench comprising Justice Sadaqat Ali Khan and Justice Shehram Sarwar Chaudhry announced the verdict on Thursday.