Man sentenced to death for murdering cop

An anti-terrorism court (ATC) sentenced on Tuesday an accused to death for murdering a police official in the Gulshan-e-Behar neighbourhood in August last year.

The accused, Muhammad Asif, alias Bhaya, was booked for shooting Assistant Sub-Inspector Akram Khan dead at a roadside eatery on August 29, 2021. Pronouncing that the prosecution had successfully proved its case against the accused, the ATC-XVI judge awarded him death penalty on two counts for the murder of the policeman and spreading terror under the Section 7(a) of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA).

The court directed the convict to pay an amount of Rs200,000 to the legal heirs of the deceased as compensation. He was handed down additional imprisonment of 10 years for the offence punishable under the Section 7(1)(h) of the ATA and another seven years for the offence defined under the Section 25 of the Sindh Arms Act. All the sentences will run concurrently. The convict is required to pay a collective fine of Rs60,000 and on default, he would have to serve six-month imprisonment.

According to the FIR, ASI Syed Zafar Hussain Shah, the complainant of the case, and the deceased cop while investigating a criminal case lodged at the Manghopir police station were waiting at a hotel in Gulshan-e-Behar Sector 16 for an informer when the accused turned up and opened fire on them, as a result of which, Khan died on the spot.

Acquittal

Another ATC acquitted an accused in a case pertaining to a robbery in Federal B Area for want of evidence. The accused, Muhammad Imran, was arrested in an injured state after an alleged shoot-out with the police within the jurisdiction of the Federal B Area police station in December 2020.

Observing that the prosecution could not prove its case against the accused, the ATC judge exonerated him from all the charges. He was already out on bail. According to the complainant, he was on his way towards Karsaz when three men riding a motorcycle intercepted him on Shah Waliullah Road in Federal B Area Block 22. Two of them got off the motorbike and robbed him of his cash and other valuables at gunpoint. Upon seeing a police van, he said he relayed the incident to the police, who then went after the fleeing accused. The prosecution had stated that spotting the police personnel, the robbers opened fire on them and in the ensuing encounter, one of the accused was injured who was taken into custody.