An additional district and sessions judge (ADSJ) in Rawalpindi on Saturday handed down death sentences to three men for murdering two brothers over an old enmity in separate incidents in 2021 and 2022. The verdict was delivered by ADSJ Afshan Ijaz Sufi.
First Murder Case in 2021
In the first case, registered with Chontra police station on October 30, 2021, the court sentenced Iftikhar Ahmed, son of Habib Khan and resident of Kurar village, and Zulfiqar, son of Habib and also resident of Kurar village, to death for killing Muhammad Ameer, son of Fazal Dad and resident of Dhoke Ghayan Miyal village. Each convicted brother was ordered to pay Rs1 million as compensation to the legal heirs of the deceased. Additionally, the court convicted Gulbaz, son of Muhammad Khan and resident of Kurar village, and sentenced him to 10 years imprisonment for attempting to murder Faisal Mehmood, son of the deceased and complainant in the case. Gulbaz was also directed to pay a fine of Rs500,000 and damages of Rs200,000.
According to the FIR lodged by Faisal Mehmood, on the day of the murder, he, along with his father Muhammad Ameer and his paternal uncle Muhammad Taj, was returning home on two motorcycles from the district courts in Rawalpindi after attending a hearing. When they reached near Dhoke Yunas on Chakbeli Khan Road, the three convicted men, along with five to six unidentified persons, ambushed them. The two convicted brothers shot and killed his father, while Gulbaz shot and wounded Faisal. The motive was an old enmity.
Second Murder Case in 2022
In the second case, ADSJ Sufi convicted and sentenced to death Iftikhar and Gulbaz for killing Muhammad Bashir, brother of deceased Ameer, on September 5, 2022 – almost one year after the first murder. The murder occurred in Miyal village within the limits of Chakri police station. The court imposed a fine of Rs1 million on each of the two convicts. The FIR was lodged by Yasir Abbas, son of the deceased Bashir, who accused the two convicted men, along with eight or nine unidentified men, of attacking Bashir while he was driving cattle in his fields. The two men opened fire on Bashir, killing him on the spot. The complainant noted that the attackers had previously killed his paternal uncle (Ameer) on October 30, 2021, and his paternal cousin Mazahir Abbas on January 15, 2020, within the limits of Chontra police station.
