KARACHI: The Sindh High Court has upheld the life imprisonment handed down by an antiterrorism court to two men in a double murder case.

An ATC had sentenced Ali Hassan Magsi and Umar Baloch Magsi to life in prison in February 2019 on charges of killing two citizens, Moeen Akhtar and Abdul Salam, for putting up resistance to a robbery near Gulzar-i-Hijri in April 2017.

The convicts through their lawyers had challenged the ATC verdict before the SHC.

A two-judge bench headed by Justice K. K. Agha after hearing both sides and examining the record and proceedings of the case removed the relevant section of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), 1997 from the case.

Court rules deterrent sentences in cases where criminals killed citizens upon resistance are fully justified

However, the bench upheld the life term and other sentences of imprisonment handed down by the trial court to both the appellants.

The bench in its order noted that street crime in the city had reached alarming proportions and very often even a slightest resistance by a victim to a robbery led to the murder of such a person by culprits.

“In such type of cases deterrent sentences are fully justified and attracted to deter such acts in order to safeguard the public and enable the public to have confidence in the criminal justice system,” the bench ruled.

The court observed that in the face of reliable and confidence-inspiring eyewitness account and other corroborative evidence the prosecution had proved it case against the appellants.

According to the prosecution, complainant Sohail Akhtar along with his two friends was going to have tea and on the way he drew cash from an automated teller machine (ATM) of a bank.

However, two men riding a motorcycle intercepted their car and deprived them of cash and other valuables. When the accused were fleeing, Moeen, who was driving the vehicle, attempted to hit their motorbike upon which they opened fire killing him and Abdul Salam.

Report on zoo bear sought

The same bench on Thursday directed the lawyer for the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation to file a report till April 25 regarding the health of a bear being kept at Karachi Zoological Gardens.

The bench asked the KMC whether the bear, ‘Ranoo’, could survive in the habitat where it was currently kept.

Around 40 petitioners had approached the SHC in 2020 stating that the baby bear was being kept at the zoo in a small and ill-equipped enclosure away from its family in Skardu and without natural habitat that lacked proper food, water and medical treatment.

Earlier, the KMC submitted that the improvement work had already been undertaken at the zoo and the bear had been temporarily shifted to a new cage till the finalisation of the work.

Published in Dawn, March 12th, 2022