Teenager sentenced to death for minor’s murder

Two other assailants given life in prison in same case

GILGIT: An anti-terrorism court sentenced a teenager to death and two others to life in prison for kidnapping and murdering an eight-year-old child in Gilgit.

The death penalty was handed to Shoaib Ahmed during a hearing in the court of Judge Raja Shahbaz. Shoaib was also fined Rs0.3 million.



The court sentenced Abrarul Haq and Muhammad Usama to life in prison and a fine of Rs0.3million each. Abrar and Usama are 15 and 16 years of age, respectively, while Shoaib is 17.

Husnain, the victim, was murdered by the convicted teenagers in November 2014 after being sexually abused. In an effort to keep him quiet about the assault, investigators said the three boys brutally killed the victim and dumped the body in a cave near the Gilgit River.

Investigators added they cut his ears, smashed his head with stones, stabbed and finally strangled him. Husnain was left in a pool of blood 500 metres from his house in Majini Mohalla.



According to the seven-page judgment,“The prosecution has proven its case against Shoaib Ahmed, Ibrarul Haq and Muhammad Usama beyond a shadow of doubt by producing sufficient evidence such as circumstantial evidence, accounts of where they were last seen evidence, CCTV footage, medical evidence, forensic serological report, recovery of the body by the suspects, confessional statements, judicial confessions and recovery of the weapon.”

The judgment added Shoaib was convicted under Section 302 (b) of the Pakistan Penal Code (intentional and deliberate murder) and Section 7 (a) of ATC Act 1997. Shoaib will be hanged to death.

The two other convicts were sentenced under sections 302/34 of PPC and Section 7(A) of ATC act 1997.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 3^rd, 2015.