Convicts’ relatives beat victim’s father at court

Thrashing prompts panic in latest violent incident at Sessions Court.

LAHORE:

The friends and family of two brothers convicted of murder heard their sentences and then thrashed the father of the murder victim outside the courtroom in yet another violent incident at the Sessions Court on Thursday.

Eyewitnesses said that five men thrashed Muhammad Siddique, father of Ghulam Murtaza, upon exiting the courtroom of Additional District and Sessions Judge Malik Tariq Mehmood Zarghaam, shortly after hearing the judge sentence Muhammad Aslam to death and Ghulam Shabbir to life in prison for murdering Murtaza over an old enmity. The two convicts’ brothers Muhammad Arshad, Walayat Ali and Farmayesh Ali were also accused in the case but acquitted.

Siddique had been late to the hearing and was trying to get inside just as the judge was announcing the sentences, but the police guards at the door would not allow him inside.

The friends and relatives of the accused spotted Siddique as they left the room and violently set upon him, triggering a massive commotion. The judge slipped out of the courtroom. Some court staffers and policemen were able to pull Siddique inside the courtroom and away from the attackers. He had a bruised face and torn shirt but suffered no major injuries.

But outside the courtroom, the angry relatives of the convicts, not yet sated, began looking around for others associated with Siddique and his family.

This provoked major panic, as bystanders feared there would be another shooting incident. Several litigants and staffers began running, which was enough to convince the attackers to chase after them. Things eventually calmed down, but no one was arrested and no case has been registered.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 7^th, 2011.