Convicts get life term in ex-senator's murder case

Soomro's family had demanded the death penalty for the convicts.

HYDERABAD:

After over a decade of waiting for justice, a court in Sukkur district has finally sentenced six convicts to life imprisonment for the murder of former Senator and Jamaat-e-Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl's Sindh General Secretary Khalid Mehmood Soomro. The six convicts, Hanif Bhutto, Sarang Bhuttani, Altaf Jamali, Mushtaq Mehar, Lutf Jamali, and Darya Khan Jamali, were found guilty of murder, terrorism, and illegal possession of weapons.

Although the judgment brings some closure to the case, it has fallen short of the expectations of JUI-F and Soomro's family, who had demanded the death penalty for the convicts.

The Anti-Terrorism Court Sukkur, which had reserved the judgment on December 13, announced the same in the central jail Sukkur where the trial was being conducted. Heavy police contingents were deployed around the prison as a considerable number of the party's workers had gathered outside the facility.

The JUI-F Sindh's incumbent general secretary Allama Rashid Mehmood Soomro and his brother Allama Nasir Mehmood Soomro, who were present in the prison, told the media that they will challenge the verdict in the Sindh High Court. "There was undeniable incriminating evidence against the convicts who should have been given the death penalty," Soomro said.