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Pakistani judge sentences Islamic militant to death
Karachi, Sept 24: A judge in the southern city of Karachi today sentenced to death an activist from a banned Islamic militant group for killing a minority Shiite Muslim, a prosecutor said.
Karachi, Sept 24: A judge in the southern city of Karachi today sentenced to death an activist from a banned Islamic militant group for killing a minority Shiite Muslim, a
prosecutor said.
The defendant, Atta Ullah, belonged to Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a group of extremist Sunni Muslims, prosecutor Mazhar Qayyum said. Ullah had already been sentenced to death in a separate murder trial for killing other Shiites.
Today's sentencing involved the killing of a guard in an attack on a Shiite mosque in Karachi on April 7, 2001, Qayyum said. The leader of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Akram Lahori, and three other men were acquitted in the case for lack of evidence, he said.
A lawyer for Ullah said he would appeal the sentence.
Qayyum said he would also appeal the ruling to seek convictions against the four men who were acquitted.
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, which was banned by President Gen. Pervez Musharraf in August 2001 in a move aimed at ending Islamic extremism in the country, is blamed for killing hundreds of Shiites. The group is also suspected of attacking Christians and westerners in Pakistan in recent months, apparently in anger over Musharraf's support for the US-led war against the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan.
Pakistani-based Islamic militant groups have links with the Taliban militia, which was ousted in a US-led war in late 2001 for harboring terrorists.
Bureau Report
Today's sentencing involved the killing of a guard in an attack on a Shiite mosque in Karachi on April 7, 2001, Qayyum said. The leader of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Akram Lahori, and three other men were acquitted in the case for lack of evidence, he said.
A lawyer for Ullah said he would appeal the sentence.
Qayyum said he would also appeal the ruling to seek convictions against the four men who were acquitted.
Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, which was banned by President Gen. Pervez Musharraf in August 2001 in a move aimed at ending Islamic extremism in the country, is blamed for killing hundreds of Shiites. The group is also suspected of attacking Christians and westerners in Pakistan in recent months, apparently in anger over Musharraf's support for the US-led war against the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan.
Pakistani-based Islamic militant groups have links with the Taliban militia, which was ousted in a US-led war in late 2001 for harboring terrorists.
Bureau Report