Sialkot lynching case: SC reduces death sentence of accused to 10-year imprisonment

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Wednesday converted death sentence of seven accused into ten years imprisonment in the murder case of two Hafiz-e-Quran brothers which occurred in 2010 in Sialkot.

A three-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa heard through video link from Lahore Registry the appeals of 12 accused against their conviction in the murder of two brothers who were killed in Sialkot in 2010.

The court also converted life imprisonment of five accused into ten years imprisonment. During the hearing, lawyers presented their arguments from Lahore Registry.

As per the case, two real brothers Muneeb and Mughees were killed in Sialkot by an angry mob in 2010 calling them robbers. The Supreme Court had taken suo motu notice of the instant matter. The trial court and high court had awarded death sentence to seven accused in the case besides awarding life imprisonment to six other accused allegedly involved in the case.

Out of 13, 12 accused had challenged their conviction before the Supreme Court. On Wednesday, during the hearing, the chief justice observed that two different stories have been made in the instant case, filing two FIRs.

The chief justice said that the first FIR, which was registered by the police at the crime scene wherein four persons were mentioned as injured and later two injured persons Bilal and Zeeshan expired while in the second FIR, which was registered after the apex court took suo motu notice in which names of the injured persons were not mentioned. The court was informed that calling the two brothers as robbers, the angry mob after attacking, killed them. Counsel for the accused told the court that unidentified people have been mentioned in the post mortem report, adding that the names of injured persons were not mentioned. He further said that in this case the cause of clash was also not proved.

The court observed that it was only mentioned that some time back, a clash erupted in a cricket ground. The chief justice wondered as to which type of story had been created in this case wherein after calling the deceased as robbers, people attacked the deceased and killed them. “By creating this story you are going to hang seven people,” the CJP asked, adding that if people had caught the robbers they have not the authority to award punishment.

The chief justice remarked that only the state is empowered to award punishment in any crime committed. “We cannot allow the society to spread violence and awarding punishment,” he said.