Man awarded death sentence

Rawalpindi
Anti-Terrorist Court (ATC) Rawalpindi Judge Chaudhry Abdul Qayyum on Wednesday awarded death sentence on three counts to the accused in murder case of Westridge Police Station SHO Inspector Raja Saqlain.
The court also imposed fine of Rs1 million upon the convict, Asad Satti who murdered SHO Raja Saqlain and his driver in 2004.
It merits mentioning here that the Anti-Terrorist Court (ATC), Rawalpindi had also awarded death sentence to Eid Muhammad and Muhammad Younas for their involvement in murder of SHO Raja Saqlain and his driver.
The ATC judge also awarded life term sentence to Tahir Mehmood and Hammad Abbasi involved in the same case and acquitted two other accused, Awais and Imran.
The court imposed a fine of Rs200,000 each on Eid Muhammad and Muhammad Younis while the convicts would also have to undergo 10 years rigorous imprisonment as well. The judge also imposed fine of Rs 100,000 each on two other convicts, Tahir Mehmood and Hammad Abbasi and awarded 10-year rigorous imprisonment to them under 7-ATA.
As per details, Inspector Saqlain was gunned down along with his driver by armed men riding a motorcycle in broad daylight in Rawalpindi in July 10, 2004. He was proceeding in his private car (IDG-5509) from his residence in Afshan Colony to his office when he was sprayed with bullets. Both Saqlain and his driver, Head Constable Raja Altaf, died on the spot. Altaf’s head was amputated due to several bullets that hit it.
The motorcyclists opened fire at Saqlain when his car slowed down due to a bumpy portion of the road in front of Al-Malik General Store in a local market, having nearly a dozen shops, just a furlong away from his home. At this the driver sped up the car and tried to flee. However, a few yards away, in front of New Qamar Dry Cleaning, an associate of the armed men, disguised as a vendor of onions and potatoes placed on a pushcart, brought his wooden piece in the middle of the road to stop the vehicle

and slipped away. This provided opportunity to the terrorists to finish their job with precision. SHO Saqlain and driver Altaf were killed on the spot. The motorcyclists disappeared from the scene.
Saqlain had been the recipient of two key awards, including the Quaid-i-Azam Police Award, for his outstanding performance in tracking down terrorists involved in sectarian activities.
Inspector Saqlain, who was also working to detect terrorist squad, was credited with tracking down bloody cases involving killings of several people at Shah Najaf, Taxila and Al-Hussain mosque, and terrorist attacks on churches in Murree and Islamabad.
The inspector was receiving threats from sectarian terrorists for some time past.
As many as 18 shots were fired at Raja Saqlain sitting at the front seat of the car, out of which at least 13 bullets penetrated different parts of his body. Similarly, 11 bullets hit Head Constable Raja Altaf.