Zainab murder case: LHC to hear plea for public execution of Imran Tuesday

 

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Tuesday will hear a petition to publicly hang Imran — convicted of the rape and murder of seven-year-old Zainab.

The petition was filed earlier by Zainab's father Haji Ameen. The provincial home secretary, Punjab Inspector General of Police (IGP) Amjad Javed Saleemi, and convict Imran have been made respondents to the plea.

A two-member bench of the high court, including Justice Syed Shahbaz Ali Rizvi and Justice Sardar Muhammad Shamim Khan, was hearing the petition.

Zainab murder case: Notification issued for Imran’s final meeting with family

Meeting will be held in jail premises on October 16 at 12pm, a police officer said

The legal counsel of Zainab's father Ishtiaq Chaudhry, in his appeal to the LHC for the public execution of Imran, maintained the stance that the convict is a serial killer.

Addressing the bench, Zainab's father said that Imran's execution should be made into an example of the rapist. "I hope the president will protect the national interest and allow Imran's public execution," Ameen said.

The LHC then issued a notice to the Punjab home secretary to appear before the court on October 16 (tomorrow).  

Imran, who was awarded 21 death sentences in the case, will be executed on October 17 at the Central Jail in Lahore.

The case 

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's DNA also matched samples taken from seven other minor girls who were abused and murdered earlier in Kasur, according to the police.

After the police arrested him, Imran reportedly confessed to assaulting eight minor girls at an under-construction site and two others in a garbage heap in Kasur.