Death warrants: Seven convicts to be hanged over Sialkot lynching

Father of victim brothers says he is satisfied that justice has been served

SIALKOT: A court in Sialkot on Wednesday sealed the fate of seven men convicted of lynching two brothers in Sialkot in a most brutal manner in August 2010.

Judge of special courts Justice Chaudhry Imtiaz Ahmed issuing the death warrants of the convicts directed the jail superintendent to execute the inmates, Jameel Jeela, Rashid Mehr, Iqbal, Ameen, Ali Raza, Shafiq and Sarfraz, on April 8. The warrants were issued while rejecting the bail pleas of the suspects.

Justice Imtiaz Ahmed in his order termed the incident shameful and also expressed ire over the inefficiency of law enforces who were present on the scene but could not prevent the murder of two innocent boys.

On August 15, 2010, hundreds of people gathered in broad daylight in Buttran Wali, Sialkot, as Mughees and Muneeb were lynched, in full view of police officers who made no attempts to stop the murder. The dead bodies of the two brothers were dragged through the streets by the mob, who labelled them robbers. The bodies were then hanged against a water tank. The villagers were about to set the bodies on fire when family members of brothers reached the spot and took them home. Later, no police record was found of Mughees and Muneeb, who were both students.

Father of the deceased boys, Sajjad Anwar, talking to Daily Express, expressed satisfaction that justice has been served. “We got justice, we are satisfied,” he said.

His voice still crackles with grief and a tear appears in the eyes when he recalls the gory incident that was aired live on news channels.

“Those cruel people….they crossed all limits of humanity in torturing my children to death. The perpetrators should be hanged in public,” Anwar said.

The complainant in the case, Khawaja Zarar, paternal uncle of the two victims, said that the Sialkot incident had tarnished the image of Pakistan. The footage of the mob beating to death two boys with police and other people watching as bystanders was an insult to Pakistani society.

“I believe, that issuing of death warrants will send a message to the world that justice is alive in this country,” he said.

Moreover, Zarar said, capital punishment to the culprits of lynching will be a warning to others to desist from such acts.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 2^nd, 2015.