Murderer of Asma Rani gets death sentence

PESHAWAR: The District and Sessions Court in Peshawar has handed death sentence to the killer of Asma Rani, a medical college student from Kohat who was murdered for rejecting his marriage proposal in 2018.

A special hearing took place inside Central Jail Peshawar on Friday, owing to security reasons. District and Sessions Judge Ashfaq Taj, while announcing a short order, awarded the death penalty to the main accused, Mujahid Ullah Afridi, and fined him Rs300,000. Two other accused, Sadiq Ullah and Shahzeb were acquitted of the charges.

Asma Rani, a third-year student of Ayub Medical College, was shot dead near her home in Kohat when she refused to marry Afridi in 2018. In her statement to police before the death, Rani had accused Mujahid Ullah of shooting her.

Afridi was taken into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police’s custody from the United Arab Emirates through Interpol. The case was shifted to Peshawar on the directives of the Peshawar High Court.