Capital punishment: ATC awards death ‘twice’ to two over kidnapping, murder

The men were found guilty of murdering Syed Ahmed Bilal, son of DHA’s director finance.

KARACHI:

While the state appears undecided over the matter of carrying out executions of prisoners on the death row, the Anti-Terrorism Court in Karachi awarded death sentence “twice” on Saturday to two accused found guilty of murdering a youth kidnapped for ransom in 2011.

Judge Khalida Yasin of the ATC-III pronounced the verdict, ordering Abu Bakar Siddique and Naseer Ahmed Butt to be hanged till death, after hearing arguments from the prosecution and defense sides.

According to prosecution, Abu Bakar had kidnapped his friend Syed Ahmed Bilal, the son of the Defense Housing Authority’s director finance, in the limits of Gizri police station on July 22, 2011.

Three days later, the captive’s family was asked to pay Rs2 million to secure his safe release. The Gizri police, however, tracked down Abu Bakar on July 30, 2011, who during interrogation disclosed to have killed the captive. On his information, police found Bilal’s body from a deserted place in DHA Phase-VIII.

His accomplice, Naseer Ahmed Butt, was also arrested on August 1, 2011, who led the investigators to recover victim’s wallet and the phone SIM used for communication.

On complaint of the victim’s father, Jamalullah, a kidnapping for ransom and murder case No. 22/2011 was registered under Sections 302, 365-A and 34 of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 at the Gizri police station.

On Saturday, Judge Khalida Yasin handed down capital punishment to them on two counts -kidnapping for ransom and murder. Ordering the two to be hanged till death, the judge also ordered them to pay a fine of Rs100,000 each.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 1^st, 2013.