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Death penalty demanded for accused in French blast case
Karachi, June 17: Pakistani prosecutors on Monday called for the death penalty for two Islamic militants as they concluded their arguments over a suicide car bomb blast which left 11 French engineers dead last year, court officials said.
Karachi, June 17: Pakistani prosecutors on Monday called
for the death penalty for two Islamic militants as they
concluded their arguments over a suicide car bomb blast which
left 11 French engineers dead last year, court officials
said.
Judge Feroze Mahmood Bhatti presiding in an
anti-terrorist court reserved his judgement until June 23,
they said.
The May 8 blast last year also killed two Pakistanis and
the suicide bomber when the bomber drove an explosives-laden
Volkswagen beetle into the French engineers' bus outside the
Sheraton Hotel in Karachi.
"The prosecution has proven the charges against the
accused beyond any doubt... They should be awarded maximum
deterrent punishment under anti-terrorism act, which is
death," public prosecutor Maula Bux Bhatti told the court.
"This was the heinous offence which was condemned internationally. It was aimed at sabotaging the country's strategic project besides taking precious lives of innocent people," he said. Islamic militants Asif Zaheer and Mohammad Bashir were indicted by the court in April on charges of terrorism, use of explosives and conspiracy to murder. Both pleaded not guilty.
"The prosecution has miserably failed to establish any of the charges against my client," Zaheer's counsel M R Syed said.
"This was the heinous offence which was condemned internationally. It was aimed at sabotaging the country's strategic project besides taking precious lives of innocent people," he said. Islamic militants Asif Zaheer and Mohammad Bashir were indicted by the court in April on charges of terrorism, use of explosives and conspiracy to murder. Both pleaded not guilty.
"The prosecution has miserably failed to establish any of the charges against my client," Zaheer's counsel M R Syed said.
Bureau Report