Murder trial: Six acquitted of 2005 killing

Victim had been pursuing case against 15 people for murder of blasphemy accused.

LAHORE:

An additional district and sessions judge has acquitted six people of murdering a man who was pursuing a case against several people accused of setting 15 alleged blasphemers on fire.

The case against Muhammad Mansha, Muhammad Maqbool (who died during the trial), Muhammad Umar, Muhammad Tanveer, Muhammad Maqsood, Muhammad Ashraf and Naveed Qadri dated back to 2005, when they allegedly shot and killed Qaisar Shafique, the complainant in a murder trial.

The 15 accused in that case, dating back to 2001, had allegedly locked a room and set it on fire while 15 people were inside. The accused had alleged that the 15 wrote letters and pamphlets containing derogatory remarks about the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). Two people died and the rest were injured. Two people were eventually convicted and sentenced to death.

The prosecution in the present case presented as evidence confessional statements by Naveed Qadri and Muhammad Ashraf that they had killed Qaisar Shafique for making blasphemous remarks. But defence counsel Advocate Ghulam Mustafa Chaudhry said that police had extracted the statements through torture and they were thus inadmissible. He said that the prosecution had only been able to produce nine of its 20 witnesses, and they had not established that the accused had been involved in Shafique’s murder. He said that no one had witnessed the crime. He said that his clients had been suffering since 2005 for a crime they had not committed.

The accused were tried for offences under Sections 302 (murder), 149 (rioting armed with a deadly weapon), 148 (collective guilt), 109 (abetment) and 34 (conspiracy) on the complaint of Muhammad Shafique, the father of the deceased.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 8^th, 2013.