Two brothers jailed for life in 2019 murder case

An anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Friday sentenced two brothers to life imprisonment for murdering a trader over a monetary dispute.

The ATC found the brothers, Muhammad Zahid and Muhammad Shahid, guilty of killing their 24-year-old business partner Zaeem Hassan by strangling him, and cutting his body into pieces, which they dumped in different areas of the city in August 2019. The ATC-II judge pronounced his order after recording evidence and final arguments from both the prosecution and defence sides. He observed that the prosecution had succeeded in proving its case against the accused beyond any shadow of doubt.

The judge awarded the two convicts rigorous imprisonment for life for offence punishable under the Section 302 (premeditated murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with the Section 7(1)(a) of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997.

The accused were also ordered to pay Rs2 million as compensation to the legal heirs of the deceased and Rs10,000 each as a fine. If they failed to pay the amount, they would have to undergo additional one-year imprisonment.

The court gave them the benefit of the Section 382-B of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), under which the time they had spent in detention since their arrest would be counted towards their jail term.

The accused attended the hearing from the central prison through video link. According to state prosecutor Parvez Ghumro, both the accused killed the victim in a brutal manner over a business dispute in August 2019. The two brothers and the victim were business partners.

The accused strangled the victim with a piece of rope and chopped his body into pieces, which they dumped in Sharafi Goth, Landhi and Korangi. The accused, however, denied allegations of the prosecution claiming that they had been falsely implicated in the case.

An FIR was lodged at the Korangi police station under the sections 365 (kidnapping or abducting with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine person), 302 (murder), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender), and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with the Section 7 (punishment for acts of terrorism) of the ATA 1997.