Family feud: Man shot dead for refusing to pardon his son’s killer

One suspect had been released after being convicted of killing the murdered man’s son.

ISLAMABAD:

Going against the conventional style of revenge, Ghulam Sadiq opted for a long and hard battle to avenge his son’s murder. He took the legal route and tried to get justice for almost ten years before succeeding in getting the assailants punished.

Only when the battle was in final stages, with an appeal against the hanging of his son’s killer pending in Supreme Court, did Sadiq lose out in his quest. He was found dead on a green belt near Fazayia Chowk with five bullets in his body.

His family told the Koral police that Sadiq wanted to see his son’s killer dead. “He was being pressurised to pardon the convict, whose family feared the Supreme Court would reject his appeal,” said a police official.

Sadiq’s son, Muhammad Asif, was killed in 2002 by relatives over a petty issue, said the investigation officer. His killers escaped from the city after the incident.

However, Sadiq, a resident of Gangal Colony in Rawalpindi, did not resort to violence. Once arrested by the Rawalpindi police, he actively pursued a legal battle against the killers. The two suspects, brothers Muhammad Ikram and Muhammad Adnan, were sentenced to death by the district court. Later on an appeal, the high court lowered Adnan’s sentence to life imprisonment. Another appeal led to his release.

However, his brother’s punishment was maintained by the high court and an appeal against the decision is pending in the Supreme Court. Adnan and his family were “certain” that the highest court of the country would reject his brother’s appeal, Sadiq’s family told police.

“They approached Sadiq and pleaded that his son was killed due to a ‘misunderstanding’ and that their son had already faced enough punishment for his doing,” said the investigation officer. Sadiq remained unmoved.

His family told the police that they believe he was intercepted near Fazayia Chowk on Friday morning or late Thursday night by the convict’s brothers, Muhammad Adnan and Muhammad Khalil, and shot dead.

They threw his body on a green belt near the chowk and escaped. Police suspected that the murderer was extremely angry as he continued shooting Sadiq even after he was dead. “Sadiq died on the spot as the first two shots pierced through his heart,” said a police official quoting the autopsy report.

His body was handed over to his family for burial after the autopsy.

A case was registered against the two brothers; however, neither had been arrested till last reports came in. The police said they had gone into hiding but would be arrested soon.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 10^th, 2012.