More witnesses summoned in lynching case

LAHORE: An anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Wednesday adjourned the hearing of lynching case of two Muslims and damaging government property after Youhannabad twin church blasts for tomorrow (Friday).

The court has adjourned the hearing and summoned more prosecution witnesses. Earlier, the ATC had framed charges against 42 Christian suspects in this case. As per details, a mob had brutally killed two men in the aftermath of the deadly church bombings in the Youhannabad 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 Youhannabad. 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.