Man sentenced to death for killing army officer in Islamabad

ISLAMABAD: A session court convicted two men for the murder of Major Mohammad Laraib of the Special Services Group (SSG) last year.

Major Laraib was shot to death on November 21, 2019 in Sector G-9 in Islamabad.The army officer was meeting his friend after his duty timings were over. Police had arrested suspects, Baitullah and Gul Siddique, a month after the crime was committed by tracing their mobile phones.

Additional Sessions Judge Muhammad Ali Warriach awarded the death sentence to Baitullah while Gul Siddique was handed life imprisonment. The judge also imposed a fine of Rs500,000 on both of them.

The verbal order in the case was given two days ago, The court issued its written order where the judge observed that police had recovered an empty shell of a 30-bore pistol from the crime scene.

The main suspect Baitullah has revealed details that led the police to recover the pistol during his physical remand. Forensic tests had confirmed that the weapon was the same which had been used to commit the crime.

The judgment states that further revelations by both suspects also led the police to recover the army officer’s original CNIC, Rs2,000 which were stolen from him, and a brown wallet that belonged to the deceased’s friend.

The deceased’s friend testified before the court that Major Laraib had picked her up from her hostel and they had gone to have coffee and later to the F-9 Park. The major’s friend said that they were in the park when both suspects appeared and one of the accused asked the army official to “hand over whatever he has”.

She said Baitullah had kicked the major twice and asked him to hand over his wallet. However, upon resistance Baitullah shot Major Laraib in the head. The judge in his decision wrote both accused while committing robbery killed Major Laraib and are hence held guilty and convicted.