Four convicted of Karachi consulate bombing

The Guardian (UK) ^ | April 14, 2003

[MrLeRoy]

A court in Pakistan today convicted four men of organising last year's suicide bomb attack on the US consulate in Karachi.

Two of the men were given death sentences by the anti-terrorism court, with the other two sentenced to life imprisonment. A fifth man was acquitted, Reuters reported.

The judge, Syed Aalay Maqbool Rizvi, found the suspected Islamic militants guilty of filling a vehicle with explosives and ramming it into the perimeter wall of the consulate during the morning rush hour on June 14 last year. Twelve Pakistanis were killed in the attack.

The explosion blew in the windows of the consulate and surrounding buildings, including the adjacent Marriott Hotel. Body parts were scattered along the road, and around 20 cars were destroyed.

Mohammed Imran, one of the men sentenced to death, told reporters after the verdict: "I am not worried. I am satisfied. I was expecting this."

Mohammad Hanif, the other man to receive a death sentence, said: "Look what is happening in Iraq. It is a conspiracy of the United States and Israel."

The men had been charged with murder, attempted murder, terrorism, conspiracy and the use of explosives. All had pleaded not guilty, and the defence said that it would appeal against the convictions.

Prosecutors said that the men belonged to the Harkat-ul Mujahideen al-Almi militant group, a splinter faction of the outlawed Harkat-ul Mujahideen, which is fighting against Indian rule in disputed Kashmir. Rukhsana Farhat, the mother of Shahrib Arslan, one of the two sentenced to jail, said that Islamists were being punished at the behest of Washington.

"Honest and pious people are being punished on the dictates of America. It is shameful," she said.

Her son had declined to comment as his three or four women relatives, all wearing Islamic robes, wailed and cried.

Islamic extremists, angry at President Pervez Musharraf's support for the US-led war on terrorism, targeted westerners, Christians and government officials in a series of attacks last year.

The attack on the consulate building, which was the fourth assault on westerners in Pakistan last year, occurred just hours after the US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, had left Islamabad after meetings with the military regime.

Authorities in the region launched a crackdown on extremist groups, arresting the key militants thought to be responsible for some of the attacks. These included a similar bombing on May 8 last year, in which 11 French naval engineers were killed.

An anti-terrorism court last year sentenced British-born Islamic militant Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh to death for the kidnapping and murder of American reporter Daniel Pearl in Karachi.

Execution in Pakistan is carried out by hanging, but usually after a lengthy appeal process. A life sentence generally means a maximum of 25 years in jail.