Court upholds death sentences handed down by ATC against two rape convicts in 2021
LAHORE:
The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday rejected the appeals filed by convicts Abid Malhi and Shafqat Bagga against their death sentences in the motorway gang rape case, upholding the sentence awarded by the trial court.
A two-member bench headed by Justice Syed Shahbaz Ali Rizvi announced the reserved verdict on the appeals. The court upheld the death sentences handed down to the two rape convicts.
An anti-terrorism court sentenced Abid Malhi and Shafqat Bagga to death on March 20, 2021, after finding them guilty in a high-profile highway gang rape case. On September 9, 2020, convicts Malhi and Shafqat raped a woman at gunpoint in Gujjarpura area while she was waiting for help on the highway after her car ran out of fuel.
The woman was traveling with her children when their car broke down in Gujjarpura due to lack of fuel. She called her relative and sent him her location on the highway. When the relative arrived at the scene, he saw the woman in panic and blood stains on her clothes. The windows of his vehicle were also broken.
The woman told police she was waiting for her relative to pick her up with her children when two armed men attacked her. One of them hit the car with batons and the other held them hostage at gunpoint.
Read: Zero convictions as Faisalabad records 97 cases of gang rape in 2025
The attackers then took her and the children to a nearby wooded area where they gang-raped the woman. They later robbed her of valuables, including Rs 100,000 in cash, two gold jewellery, a bangle, a car registration card and three ATM cards, and left her stranded.
The convicts subsequently challenged the anti-terrorism court’s verdict before the LHC on March 25, 2021, seeking the annulment of their convictions and sentences. After hearing the appeals, the LHC denied the motions and upheld the death sentences handed down by the trial court.
This horrific incident shook the collective conscience of the entire nation, sparked nationwide outrage and raised questions about the deceitful nature of a society where pure savagery hides behind the veil of piety and morality and where nowhere seems safe anymore.
The grisly incident also sparked a debate in mainstream and social media about behavioral trends and the alarming rise in cases of sexual violence in the country, as well as the failure of law enforcement to keep citizens safe, as even driving on a highway can be perilous.
