Speedy trials: Army chief confirms death penalty of nine terrorists

Convicts include those involved in killing of Maj Gen Sanaullah Niazi

ISLAMABAD:

Army chief General Raheel Sharif confirmed on Monday the death sentence of nine ‘hardcore terrorists’, who have been convicted by military courts on terrorism charges. With the latest convictions, the number of terrorists whose death sentence has been confirmed this month jumped to 14.

According to a statement issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the convicts include those involved in the killing of Swat Division’s former general commanding officer Maj Gen Sanaullah Niazi. Niazi was killed along with Lt Col Tauseef and Lance Naik Irfan Sattar in an IED attack in Upper Dir in September 2013.

The military’s media wing said the other convicts were handed down the death penalty for their involvement in the killing of civilians and law enforcers in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, a suicide attack on a mosque in Nowshera and sectarian killings in Mastung district of Balochistan.

Those who have been awarded the death sentence include Said Zaman Khan, Obaid Ullah, Mehmood, Qari Zubair Muhammad, Rab Nawaz, Muhammad Sohail, Muhammad Imran, Aslam Khan and Jameel ur Rehman.

“One terrorist, Jamshed Raza, has been awarded life imprisonment,” said the ISPR.

The convicts were active members of banned militant outfits, including Harkat Ul Jehad-e-Islami and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). All the convicts confessed to their offences before the magistrate and the trial court, the ISPR said.



Earlier, on September 2, the army chief had confirmed death sentences of five hardcore terrorists involved in the killing of an advocate in Lahore, sectarian killings in Quetta, killings of police officials in Karachi, Bannu jailbreak and attacks on a girls’ school and a polio team in Khyber Agency.

The military courts were established as part of the new national counterterrorism plan put in place following last year’s grisly attack on the Army Public School (APS) in Peshawar that had left 140-plus staff and schoolchildren dead. These courts have so far awarded the death sentence to 27 terrorists, including the perpetrators of the APS carnage.

The military courts appear to have expedited the prosecution of suspected terrorists following the Supreme Court verdict that upheld their formation.

Last month, the Peshawar High Court had suspended the execution of a death-row prisoner who was condemned to death by a military court on terrorism charges.

Haider Ali and six other terrorists had been convicted in April this year for heinous offences relating to terrorism, manslaughter, suicide bombing, abduction for ransom, colossal damage to life and property, said the ISPR.

The military courts’ mandate to try suspected militants expires in February 2017, and the government has promised to use that time to reform the broken civilian justice system.


Published in The Express Tribune, September 22^nd, 2015.