40 acquitted in Youhanabad lynching cases

LAHORE: An anti-terrorism court on Wednesday acquitted 40 accused Christians after the complainant entered into a compromise with the accused in Youhanabad lynching cases of two Muslim men, Babar Nauman and Naeem.

The court has also acquitted 47 Christians accused of arson, rioting and damaging state property by giving them the benefit of the doubt. ATC Judge Arshad Hussain Bhutta on Wednesday concluded four trials related to Youhanabad incident.

In two trials of lynching the complainant of the cases Muhammad Nawaz, Khadija Bibi and Muhammad Iqbal recorded their statements before the court that they have entered into a compromise with the accused. In other cases of arson and rioting the court has acquitted accused by giving them benefit of the doubt.

In lynching cases 42 were indicted. However, two accused died in jail. On October 1, 2016 then ATC judge Azizullah had framed charges against 42 Christian suspects in the Youhanabad lynching cases.

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 protesters.

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 Nauman, 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 Nauman 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.