KARACHI: A special gender-based violence court has dismissed bail applications of two suspects charged with kidnapping a teenage girl from Karachi.

Zaheer Ahmed and his brother Shabbir Ahmed have been charged with kidnapping a 15-year-old girl from Karachi and trafficking her to Punjab, where her illegal underage marriage was solemnised in April this year.

Judge Ilyas pronounced his verdict reserved earlier on the bail pleas of both the brothers after hearing arguments from both sides.

The judge recalled interim pre-arrest bail granted to both the accused on July 21. Therefore, they were taken into custody.

The court issued non-bailable warrants for the arrest of six suspects absconding in the case.

On Aug 27, the court had accepted final challan against 16 people, who have been charged with kidnapping the underage girl and arranging her marriage in Punjab.

The court had also directed the investigating officer of the case to arrest the absconders — Noor Muneer, Muneer Hussain Lughmani, Muhammad Waseem, Khurram Mehmood, Muhammad Arif and Muhammad Umar — and produce them in court on the next date.

The alleged prime suspect, 18-year-old Muhammad Zaheer, his brother Muhammad Shabbir, local cleric Hafiz Ghulam Mustafa, along with seven others have been nominated in the case.

The case has been lodged under the relevant sections of the law at the Al-Falah police station on the complaint of the victim’s father, Syed Mehdi Ali Kazmi.

Man gets life imprisonment

A model court on Thursday awarded life imprisonment to a man for murdering his neighbour over a trivial dispute in the Jamshed Quarters area.

Muhammad Qasim Abbasi was found guilty of shooting to death Muhammad Imran Khan over the issue of smoking outside the latter’s house within the jurisdiction of the Jamshed Quarters police station on Feb 20, 2021.

Additional District and Sessions Judge Haleem Ahmed of the Model Criminal Trial Court (East) pronounced his verdict which was reserved earlier after recording evidence and final arguments from both sides.

The judge observed that the ocular evidence is supported by medical evidence and recovery of firearm coupled with FSL (forensic science laboratory) report.

He maintained that ocular evidence has established that the accused had quarrelled with the deceased before the occurrence and thereafter he took out pistol and barged into his house and shot him.

He observed that the prosecution successfully proved its case against the accused beyond any shadow of doubt. Hence, the judge handed down life imprisonment to him.

He also ordered the convict to pay Rs500,000 compensation to the legal heirs of the deceased.

However, the judge noted that the reason for not awarding death penalty to the man is that he fired one shot at the deceased and he didn’t fire afterwards, which constitutes strong mitigating circumstances to award lesser penalty.

According to the prosecution, the complainant, Kamran Khan, stated that the accused was smoking cigarette in front of the main gate of his house on Feb 20, 2021. He barred the man from smoking there as it infringed on his “right to privacy”, after which the accused got furious and scuffled with him.

The deceased who was sleeping inside came out on hearing hue and cry, after which Abbasi also engaged in a brawl with him, it added.

The prosecution said accused later came back with a pistol and barged into his home and fired shot at his brother Imran, who died while being shifted to the hospital.

Published in Dawn, September 2nd, 2022