Major Laraib murder: Court hands death sentence to one convict, life imprisonment to another

• Major Laraib was shot to death on November 21, 2019.
• Police arrested them with the help of mobile tracing.
• Both accused were also imposed a fine of Rs500,000.

ISLAMABAD: A sessions court convicted two men — Baitullah and Gul Siddique — for killing Major Mohammad Laraib of the Special Services Group (SSG) last year, The News reported on Sunday.

Major Laraib was shot to death on November 21, 2019, when he was meeting his friend in Sector G-9 in Islamabad. The army officer was meeting his friend after his duty timings were over. Police had arrested suspects 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 the other, Gul Siddique was handed life imprisonment. Both accused were also slapped with fines of Rs500,000.

The court issued its written order Saturday where the judge observed that police had recovered an empty shell of a 30-bore pistol from the crime scene.

Baitullah revealed details that led the police to recover the pistol during his physical remand. Forensic tests had pointed out that the weapon was the same which had been used to commit the crime. 

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

As per the details revealed by the testimony of the deceased's friend, 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". 

Baitullah had kicked the major twice and asked him to hand over his wallet. She revealed that Baitullah shot Major Laraib after he resisted. 

The judge in his decision wrote, "From what has been discussed, I am of the opinion that both accused in furtherance of their common intention while committing robbery committed Qatl-e-Amd of Major Laraib, hence they are held guilty and convicted u/s 302-6/34 PPC as Tazeer read with 397."

The order states, "The recovery of snatched articles (wallet and CNIC) has also proved against both the accused persons. They are also held guilty of retaining stolen property and are convicted u/s 411 PPC."