7-year-old Zainab Amin was abducted, raped and murdered early in January by Ali, who later hid her body in a trash heap.
AMN
An anti-terrorism court in Pakistan has given 24-year-old man, Imran Ali Naqshbandi, four death sentences for raping and murdering seven-year-old girl Zainab Amin last month.
Imran was handed death sentences for kidnapping, rape, murder and an act of terrorism, a life sentence for sodomy and a large fine. His lawyer had withdrawn from the case after Imran confessed.
According to the Dawn news, Imran now has 15 days to appeal against the verdict. Zainab’s father, Mohammad Amin, expressed a sigh of relief at the sentencing of his daughter’s rapist and killer.
The verdict was announced at Lahore’s Central Jail in Kot Lakhpat on Saturday.
The four death penalties were for kidnapping, raping and murdering Zainab, and for committing an act of terrorism punishable under Section 7 of the Anti Terrorism Act (ATA).
One life sentence, along with a Rs1 million fine, was handed to Ali for committing an “unnatural act”. Two death sentences, accompanied by Rs1 million fine each, were imposed on him under ATA and Pakistan Penal Code. A 7-year jail sentence and Rs100,000 fine was further awarded for concealing the body in a trash heap.
Additionally, Rs1 million from the penalties imposed will be paid to the victim’s heirs, the judge ruled.
Zainab’s mother, Nusrat Bibi, demanded that the execution of the death penalties be carried out in public.
“I want him to be hanged publicly at the place where he took Zainab,” she told reporters after the verdict.
Ali faces further charges in the cases of at least seven other children he attacked — five of whom were murdered — in a spate of assaults that had stoked fears a serial child killer was on the loose.
Seven-year-old Zainab was kidnapped from near her aunt’s house in Kasur on January 4 and was found dead in a garbage heap five days later.
On January 23, the authorities claimed to have nabbed Imran, a serial killer involved in other such crimes, through a DNA match. Imran was arrested on January 23.