NEW DELHI, May 21: A New Delhi court on Friday awarded death to a Pakistani for killing an Indian soldier, saying that such extreme punishment was necessary to "castrate" terrorism.

Maqsood Ahmed of Mianwali was also ordered to pay a fine for joining a group of Islamic militants accused of attacking a paramilitary camp near New Delhi in 2001. "The monstrosity of the accused to commit murder in a diabolic manner of a constable in a foreign land is not the figment of imagination or film story, but the fact of modern times," said Additional Sessions Judge J.M. Malik.

He agreed with police prosecutor K. K. Singh "that terrorism has to be crushed with heavy hands". "In order to castrate the terrorists, capital punishment is called for," Malik said, but added that Maqsood had the right to contest the death sentence by a higher court. -AFP