LAHORE - An anti-terrorism court yesterday awarded death sentence to five persons and two years imprisonment to eight others for burning a Christian couple alive in 2014. The court however acquitted 90 persons due to lack of evidence.
On Nov 4 that year, Shahzad and his wife Shama - who was with child – were lynched and burned in a brick kiln after they were accused of burning a copy of the Holy Quran.
Investigations revealed that a local prayer leader, Hafiz Ishtiaq, had provoked the villagers against the ill-fated couple who were dragged by an enraged mob from their home in Kot Radha Kishan and killed.
The five convicts who were given death sentence are Hafiz Ishtiaq, Muhammad Hanif, Irfan Shakoor, Riaz and Mehdi Khan. ATC-I Judge Chaudhry Muhammad Azam also imposed a fine of Rs200,000 on them.
Those sentenced for two years in jail were Muhammad Hussain, Navid, Arslan, Latif, Haris Bashir, Munir Ahmad, Muhammad Ramzan, Muhammad Irfan and Hafiz Shahid.
Riaz Anjum, the lawyer representing the couple’s family, said a total of 103 people had been charged in the case.
“The five people awarded the death sentence were involved in dragging, beating and burning the couple while the other eight played a supportive role according to the judgement,” he said.
Anjum said the owner of the brick kiln, who had been accused of locking the couple up as they tried to flee for fear they would default on their debt to him, was among those who were acquitted.