KARACHI, March 30: An anti-terrorism court sentenced on Wednesday an Afghanistan-born activist of the banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi to death on two counts in the murder case of two Iranian owners of a bakery.

Judge Feroze Mehmood Bhatti of the ATC-2 also ordered Abdul Wahab Afghani to pay a compensation of Rs200,000 to the families of the victims.

The judge, however, acquitted co-accused Shahnwaz alias Shani in the case for want of incriminating evidence against him. The judge also acquitted absconding accused Shaukat.

Ghulam Hussain, the 45-year-old Iranian owner of Subhanullah Bakery, and his 18-year-old nephew were shot dead in their outlet on M. A. Jinnah Road on Feb 27, 2004.

The same court (ATC-2) acquitted two workers of the banned Harkatul Mujahideen Al-Aalmi in a petrol pump blast case.

The judge exonerated Syed Ahmer Kazmi and Naeem Rufi from charges while giving them benefit of doubt.

The two activists were prosecuted for causing bomb blast at a petrol pump in the jurisdiction of Soldier Bazaar police on May 15, 2003.

M. R. Syed represented the Harkat men and special public prosecutor Abdul Waheed Khan appeared on behalf of the state.

Besides, the same court recorded the statement of the last four prosecution witnesses in two other petrol pump blast cases against the same set of the accused.

The cases were registered by the Gulshan-i-Iqbal and Frere police. The judge fixed April 4 for recording statements of the accused.

BLAST CASES: Judge Haq Nawaz Baloch of the ATC-5 acquitted two activists of the banned Harkatul Mujahideen Al-Aalmi in two separate petrol pump blast cases.

Acused Naeem Roofi and Syed Ahmer Kazmi were tried for carrying out blasts at two petrol pumps in Gizri and Saddar on May 15, 2003.

As many as 22 cases were registered on May 15, 2003 after locally-assembled devices exploded at 22 petrol pumps in different parts of the city early in the morning.

Two sets of accused were charge-sheeted in the cases, which were sent to different ATCs for trial. Over a dozen cases have so far been decided and none of them ended in conviction.

The contradictory technical evidence, put forward by the experts from Bomb Disposal Squad was cited as one of the major reasons for the acquittal of the accused.

According to prosecution, the accused came on bikes to different petrol pumps and planted explosive devices and fled. It was alleged that the bombs later on went off after 15 to 30 minutes.

However, according to the evidence of the bomb disposal experts, the devices were fitted with fuse wires, which were required to be ignited by the accused.

According to their deposition, one foot of the fuse wire burns in 30 seconds.

However, it was the case of the prosecution that the bombs exploded at least 15 minutes after the accused left the scene.