File Photo. Asif Hassan—AFP
Anti-Terrorism Court in Karachi also fines all five accused in case to Rs. 200,000 each
An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Karachi on Friday sentenced four men to life imprisonment on two counts in the murder case of rights activist Perween Rahman, who was shot dead in the Sindh capital in 2013.
Of the five people charged for murder in the case—Abdul Raheem Swati and his son Mohammad Imran Swati; Ayaz Shamzai alias Swati; Amjad Hussain Khan; and Ahmed Khan alias Pappu Kashmiri—all but Mohammad Imran were sentenced to life imprisonment. All five accused were also fined Rs. 200,000 each, while Imran was sentenced to seven years in jail.
The verdict was announced two months after the court reserved it on Oct. 15 following the completion of hearings in the eight-year-long trial.
Rahman was shot dead while traveling to her office in Orangi Town on March 13, 2013. In March 2021 the Anti-Terrorism Court was informed that Rahman had identified and named “land grabbers and extortionists” for trying to illegally occupy the land of her office in an interview around 15 months before her murder. In the interview, Rahman had described Raheem Swati as a “land grabber and extortionist,” adding he wanted to illegally occupy the land of her office.