ISLAMABAD: Shahrukh Jatoi and other suspects in the Shahzeb murder case were acquitted by the Supreme Court on Tuesday, almost 10 years after the incident in Karachi’s posh area which sparked outrage among the people.

“The Supreme Court has acquitted the four accused on the basis of the agreement. Today, of course, justice has been done,” suspects lawyer Latif Khosa told reporters after the top court’s decision.

A three-judge bench, headed by Justice Ijazul Ahsan, and comprising Justice Munib Akhtar and Justice Sayyed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi, heard the case.

Khosa told the apex court that an agreement has already been reached between the parties, adding: “The accused persons had no intention of spreading terror.”

He contended that the murder incident should not be given the “colour of terrorism”.

An Anti-Terrorism Court had awarded the death penalty to Jatoi and his accomplice Siraj Ali Talpur for Shahzeb’s murder in 2013. Siraj’s younger brother, Sajjad Ali Talpur, and domestic helper Ghulam Murtaza Lashari were handed life sentences.

However, in 2017, the complainant side, Shahzeb’s parents, had ‘pardoned’ Jatoi, approved by the Sindh High Court (SHC), under the country’s Qisas and Diyat law. Despite the pardon, however, the death penalty had been upheld because of the addition of terrorism charges to the case. The SHC later dropped the charges and ordered a retrial in the case.

Shahzeb Khan’s murder

Shahzeb Khan, 20, the son of a police official, was killed on December 24, 2012, in Karachi’s Defence Housing Authority which drew outrage across the country. He was returning home with his sister from a wedding.

He was killed for picking a fight with one of the suspects’ servants, who had verbally threatened and harassed his sister.

The-then chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry had taken suo motu notice of the incident.

The media reported that the prime suspect belonged to powerful feudal families in Sindh.