Man gets life term in journalist’s murder case

KARAK: A local court on Wednesday awarded life imprisonment and fine of Rs0.5 million to a man for murdering a journalist, Ayub Khattak, in 2013.

District and Sessions Judge, Karak, Syed Kamal Hussain Shah, awarded life term to Aminullah in the murder case and acquitted his brother Khoob Niaz after hearing both the parties and the state lawyer.

As per the police report, the complainants Mukhtiar, brother of the deceased journalist, had claimed that the two accused brothers Aminullah and Khoob Niaz were drug smugglers and they shot dead Ayub Khattak after he filed a story about the drug smuggling in the district.

The complainant’s lawyer Akhtar Nawaz submitted that the journalist had filed a story about the hashish business in the area, which annoyed the accused. He said that prior to the killing, the accused had hurled serious threats at the journalist.

He argued that the accused persons killed the journalist who was just performing his duty. The accused should be awarded capital punishment, he pleaded. As per the police report, he said both the accused came on a motorcycle on October 11, 2013 and shot dead the journalist in Takht Nusrati area when he came out of his home to leave for his duty.

The brother of slain journalist, Mukhiar Khan, and his son, Shamsur Rehman, expressed dissatisfaction at the court verdict. They said the court should have awarded death sentence to the accused person in the murder case. They said they would challenge the sentence to one accused and acquittal of the other in the Peshawar High Court.