Five convicts spared gallows for murder of nine

LHC cites legal flaws in trial court judgment; victims' family to challenge ruling

RAWALPINDI:

The Lahore High Court (LHC)'s Rawalpindi Bench has converted the death sentences of five convicts in the 2020 murder of nine members of a family in the Chontra area of Rawalpindi into life imprisonment, partially allowing their appeals against the capital punishment.

A division bench headed by Justice Sadaqat Ali Khan set aside the five death sentences awarded to each of the five convicts and dismissed the victim party's petitions seeking to uphold the capital punishment. The High Court observed that there were legal flaws in the trial court's judgment which could not be overlooked.

The five convicts - Rab Nawaz, Danish, Ashraf, Aqib and Akram - had allegedly joined other accomplices in carrying out the massacre to avenge an old enmity.

On 24 July 2020, they entered the victims' house in Karral Mial, Chontra, and opened fire with Kalashnikovs, killing nine members of the same family before fleeing the scene. They were subsequently arrested.

The victims included five women - Azran Bibi, Nisar Bibi, Salim Akhtar, Sabiha Bibi and Sidra Bibi - three minor girls, Iman Fatima, Abida Shaheen and Anzala Bibi, and one man. The trial court had sentenced the five convicts to death five times each and imposed a fine of Rs500,000 on each of them. The LHC had earlier suspended the sentences and remanded the case to the sessions court, directing it to rehear the final arguments and decide the matter afresh. The sessions court subsequently upheld the same sentences for a second time. However, while hearing the appeals for the second time, the LHC partially accepted the convicts' appeals.