PAKISTAN: COP SENTENCED TO DEATH, ANOTHER GETS LIFE TERM FOR MURDERING TEENAGE STUDENT

June 1, 2022:

A district court on 30 May 2022 awarded capital punishment to a police constable and life imprisonment to a volunteer cop for the Police Qaumi Razakar (PQR) for murdering a teenage student and wounding another in an alleged fake encounter in Gulshan-e-Iqbal.
On October 10, 2016, constable Bannal Khan and Zafar Abbas, patrolling on a motorcycle, had opened fire at 2 cousins – Atiqullah and Azizullah – near the Nipa Flyover after they allegedly ignored the cops’ signal to stop, leaving them injured.
Atiqullah, a second-year student at the Rangers College, had later succumbed to his injuries. Both accused were booked in an FIR lodged at the Gulshan-e-Iqbal police station under Section 302 (murder), 324 (attempt to murder), and Section 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).
After recording evidence and hearing arguments from both sides, Additional District and Sessions Judge-I (East) Haleem Ahmed pronounced the verdict. “The prosecution successfully proved that from the firing of accused PC Bannal, Atiqullah died and Azizullah sustained firearm injuries,” said the judge. He added, “Both the accused persons were patrolling on the same motorcycle.
They acted in furtherance of common intention and after the incident they tried to manage the facts so as to make it appear that a police encounter had taken place; thus, common intention of the accused was proved.” The court awarded the death sentence to Bannal Khan and life imprisonment to Zafar Abbas for the murder of Atiqullah.