Army appellate court upholds convictions of GHQ attackers

Army appeals court seals fate of attackers by upholding earlier sentence in field general court martial.

The Army appellate court on Friday rejected appeals of all seven men previously convicted in GHQ attack case, Exrpess News reported.

Earlier in a verdict delivered via a field general court martial on August 11, 2011, army sepoy Aqeel alias Dr Usman was sentenced to death, while another personnel Imran Siddiq was awarded life imprisonment. A fine of Rs 200,000 and Rs100,000 had been imposed on the two, respectively.

Dr Usman's counsel Tariq Asad said that they would appeal in the high court against the verdict.

Along with the two servicemen, their civilian accomplices included Khaliqur Rehman, Muhammad Usman, Wajid Ali, Muhammad Adnan and Tahir Shafiq. The first three have been sentenced to life imprisonment, while the other two have been given jail terms of 10 and seven years, respectively

The civilians have been convicted for assisting the attackers, helping them find their targets and inciting servicemen to wage war against the army.

On October 10, 2009, heavily-armed militants wearing suicide vests, mounted a brazen attack on General Headquarters Rawalpindi and held off army commandos for hours.

Nine of the attackers were killed in the operation while one was arrested after he was wounded. He was identified as Aqeel, aka Dr Usman.