Karachi man sentenced to death for killing couple during house robbery

KARACHI: A sessions court has sentenced a man to death in a double murder case.

Additional District and Sessions Judge (South) Abdul Hafeez Lashari, who conducted the trial at the judicial complex inside the central prison, found Nawaz Khursheed guilty of murdering an elderly couple, Jawed Iftikhar and Salma, in their DHA Phase-VI home in 2020 during a robbery.

The judge also sentenced the accused to 10 years in prison under Sections 324 (attempted murder), five years under 392 (punishment for robbery) and seven-year imprisonment under Section 397 (robbery or dacoity, with attempt to cause death or grievous hurt) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).

The court noted that substantial evidence established that the primary motive for the crime was robbery. The accused, facing “financial desperation” due to unemployment, targeted an elderly couple residing in a bungalow.

“[He was] aware of their vulnerability and the presence of valuables… The subsequent murders of Salma and Jawed Iftikhar occurred when they resisted his attempt to steal jewellery and cash,” it added.

The counsel for the complainant, Muhammad Farooq, stated that house help Umer Farooq, who was critically injured during the robbery, testified that in the month of Ramazan, during the early hours as he woke up to prepare Sehri, he saw the accused armed with a dagger and a pistol.

The accused tied his hands and feet with a rope, slit his throat and left him unconscious.

In his confessional statement before the magistrate, the accused stated that he trespassed into the bungalow with the intention of robbery. He cut the barbed wire at the rear boundary, hid on the rooftop and ambushed the house help.

He added that he slit the throats of the couple as they resisted while he was stealing jewellery and cash. He confessed that after the robbery, he discarded his blood-stained clothes in a nearby open plot, which was later recovered.

Published in Dawn, February 10th, 2025