Five convicted of attacking Taseer vigil

LAHORE
An Anti-Terrorism Court Monday awarded five-year sentence each to five suspects for attacking a candle-lit vigil held by members of civil society to mark 5th death anniversary of Punjab’s slain governor Salman Taseer.
The court convicted the suspects under five different sections of laws. They included Adeel, Furqan, Kashif, Iftikhar and Wazir Ali. ATC judge Haroon Latif Khan awarded imprisonment of five years to them under 7ATA, three and half years under section 365 of PPC, two years, under section 149 of PPC, three years under 153-Aof PPC. All the sentences would run concurrently. The court also imposed a fine of Rs40,000 on each convict. Each convict would have to undergo six months additional imprisonment for failing to submit the fine. However, the court acquitted Din Muhammad and Sajid from charges as they were not found guilty. Trial of the prime suspect of the incident Mumtaz Sindhi was yet to be completed. More than a dozen baton-wielding men had attacked the participants of the candle-lit vigil held at the Liberty Chowk in Lahore to mark the death anniversary of Salman Taseer on Jan 4, 2015. The attackers tore the banners, pictures and posters displayed at the venue and thrashed the activists holding the vigil. The attackers also raised slogans in favour of Mumtaz Qadri, a former police guard, who shot dead then governor in Islamabad for supporting a blasphemy convict, Asia Masih, who was later sentenced to death by an Anti-Terrorism Court.