Judge of Anti-Terrorism Court for Karachi (ATC-I) Ghulam Ali A Samtio on Tuesday convicted and sentenced three out of six, accused in an attempt to kill President Pervez Musharraf case, while three co-accused were absolved of the charges.
The judge announced the verdict inside Central Prison, Karachi, on Tuesday afternoon. The convicts, Muhammad Imran, Muhammad Haneed and Muhammad Ashraf, Amir, Naib Amir and Finance Secretary of Harakat-ul-Mujahideen Al-Almi, were sentenced to serve life terms.
Three accused exonerated are Arsalan Farooqui alias Sharib, Jameel and Inspector Waseem of Pakistan Rangers. The case was earlier tried by another ATC Court and was remanded back by the Anti-Terrorist Appellate bench of Sindh High Court (SHC) for wrong charges framed against the accused.
The same set of accused were convicted and exonerated during the first trial also. The accused were charged with conspiracy to kill President Pervez Musharraf on April 24, 2002 when he came to an official visit of Karachi.
Prosecution alleged that the accused, arrested in the US Consulate bomb blast case (of which they also have been exonerated), confessed of their plot to kill President Musharraf and that they parked a vehicle full of explosives on the route of the President to Karachi city from Karachi airport. Their plan failed as the explosion was prevented due to a technical fault.