LHC upholds death in couple lynching case

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday upheld the death sentence of three persons while acquitted two others in the case of lynching a Christian couple who were accused of blasphemy in Kot Radha Kishan in 2014.

A two-judge bench headed by Justice Muhammad Qasim Khan rejected appeals filed by convicts Riaz Kambo, Irfan Shakoor, and Mehdi Khan challenging their death sentence. However, the court accepted appeals of two convicts Hanif and prayer leader Hafiz Ishtiaq and overturned their death penalties, resulting in their acquittal.

Shahzad Masih and Shama Bibi were burned alive in a kiln by a frenzied mob which was incited by announcements made from mosques in the area. Both the man and his wife were kiln workers, and the woman, a mother of three, was pregnant at the time. Police had registered a case against 660 villagers after the incident. In 2015, an anti-terrorism court had indicted 106 suspects in the case.

In November 2016, the Anti-Terrorism Court sentenced five men identified as Mehdi Khan, Riaz Kambo, Irfan Shakoor, Muhammad Hanif, and prayer leader Hafiz Ishtiaq to two counts of death for their involvement in the lynching of the couple.

The court had also awarded two-year imprisonment each to eight other suspects, including Muhammad Hussain, Muhammad Arsalan, Muhammad Haris, Noorul Hassan, Muhammad Munir, Muhammad Ramzan and Hafiz Shahid. However, the court had acquitted 93 suspects, including Yousaf Gujjar, the kiln owner, as charges were not established against them.

The five convicts filed appeals in the high court challenging their death penalties. A two-judge bench headed by Justice Muhammad Qasim Khan; however, allowed appeals of two, including Hafiz Ishtiaq and Muhammad Hanif while rejected appeals of other three upholding their death penalty.

The lawyer for the convicts appealed to the court against the punishment handed to them by the ATC, saying that the court had given its verdict without taking the law into consideration. He said that all the convicts had been nominated at a later stage in the case and pleaded for their acquittal. The state prosecutor argued that there was solid evidence against all the convicts and requested the court to scrap the appeal. The court subsequently acquitted two of the convicts, while upholding the ATC's earlier verdict on the appeals of three of the convicts.