Eleven militants were sentenced to death for an assassination attempt on a Pakistani army general that killed 10 people in 2004

Pakistan sentences 11 to death for attack on general
(AFP)

21 February 2006

KARACHI - A Pakistani court Tuesday sentenced 11 members of an Al Qaeda-linked militant group to death for a 2004 attack on a top general in Karachi that killed 11 people.

The extremists from Jund Allah, or Army of God, opened fire on the car of General Ahsan Saleem Hayat, the then corps commander of Karachi, as he drove through the restive southern city in his motorcade on June 10, 2004.

Saleem, who is now deputy chief of the Pakistani army, survived the shooting but at least seven soldiers, three policemen and a passer-by died in the hail of bullets.

Eleven of the militants were present in court and another five who absconded earlier were also handed death sentences in their absence by the anti-terrorism court in Karachi.

“The prosecution has produced witnesses, the charges against you have been proven and you are hereby sentenced to death,” Judge Feroz Muhammad Bhatti said as he announced the verdict.

The judge also ordered the convicts to pay a fine of 50,000 rupees (833 dollars) each and pay twice as much to the relatives of those killed in the attack.

“Allahu Akbar” and “We will accept death punishment even if it is awarded 10 times”, shouted the bearded convicts wearing traditional smocks and tunics as Bhatti finished reading the judgement.

Members of Jund Allah were trained in camps run by Al Qaeda in the rugged tribal district of South Waziristan near the Afghan border, where Pakistan’s military is engaged in an ongoing hunt for militants.

Last year an anti-terrorism court jailed two Pakistani doctors for seven years for helping injured Al Qaeda and Jund Allah militants.

Several senior Al Qaeda fugitives, including alleged September 11 planners Ramzi bin Al Shaibh and Khalid Sheikh Mohammad have used Karachi’s crowded apartment blocks as hideouts.

Militants linked to Osama bin Laden’s terror network kidnapped Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl there in 2002, before beheading him and videotaping his gruesome death.

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