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3 awarded life term in abduction and ransom case

RAWALPINDI: District and Session Judge Rawalpindi Al-Haj Feroz Uddin Khan on Tuesday convicted three accused, including one female, in an abduction-for-ransom case and awarded them life imprisonment and 30 lashes each.

Accused Haris Abdullah, Fraz Ayub and his younger sister Nadia Ayub were also fined Rs 10,000 each and of forfeit their properties the court order said. In case of non-payment of fine the accused have to further undergo one-year imprisonment.

The judge while announcing the judgment said that charges against the three accused have been proved so that they were hereby convicted under section 365-A and section 11 of the Hadood Ordinance.

Aafia Yousaf, daughter of a federal secretary, was a student of 2nd year in Girls College F 6-1, Islamabad. On June 8, 1998, one of the accused Nadia Ayub, who was also student of the same college, took Aafia to a car on some pretext. She pushed her into the car parked on the road.

Accused Faraz Ayub was occupying the driving seat of the vehicle. She was driven to the residence of the accused in Rawal Town from where Aafia Yousaf was taken to Lahore Hotel.

The accused Faraz Ayub and Haris Abdullah prepared fake marriage documents and demanded of the parents of the kidnapped girl an amount of one million rupees as ransom for her release.

The kidnapers had taken the abducted with them from Lahore to Faisalabad, Multan, Quetta, Multan and then again at Lahore from where police rounded up the two culprits along with Aaifa Yousaf on July 7, 1998. APP