42 indicted in Youhanabad lynching case

LAHORE

An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) judge Justice Azizullah on Friday framed charges against 42 Christian suspects in the Youhanabad lynching case of two Muslim men Babar Noman and Naeem.

All the accused present before the court pleaded not guilty after which the court has framed charges against them. Previously, the court had indicted 22 accused in this case. The court has also appointed a state counsel in this case namely Nauman Baluch. It is learnt that defendants were using delaying tactics in this case by filing different applications under different pretexts.

However, state prosecutor Anees Shah requested the court to hear the case on daily basis which lead to the indictment of the accused persons.The court has distributed copies of the case record among accused. In the next hearing, court is likely to summon prosecution witnesses to start the regular trial.

A mob had brutally killed two men in the aftermath of the deadly church bombings in Lahore’s Youhanabad area on March 15, 2015.

Fifteen people, a woman and a policeman among them, were killed and 85 others suffered injuries after two bombers blew themselves up outside two churches in Youhanabad. Soon after the incident, members of the Christian community launched protests. The protesters turned violent and an angry mob grabbed two unidentified people who what the protesters claimed were the associates of the suicide bombers and started thrashing them. They burned them alive in the presence of police. The two victims were identified by their families as Babar Noman, a garment worker who had come to Lahore from Sargodha in search of employment in a factory, and Hafiz Naeem, a glass cutter.

The investigation police had arrested over 69 suspects in connection with the lynching of victims Babar Noman and Naeem. 

In the challan presented before the court by Nishtar Colony police against the accused, it was stated that the suspects violently torched two innocent citizens to death following the church blasts. The police had taken the suspects into custody after matching their images from cellphone footages and pictures and subsequently with the record of Nadra.