KARACHI, Nov 22: A sessions court on Monday sentenced seven Bengalis to a total of four years in prison in two cases relating to possessing counterfeit Pakistani travel documents.

The court found Mohammad Shahjahan, Mohammad Iqbal, Nazimuddin, Mohammad Akhtar, Mohammad Ilyas, Abdul Hashim and Noor guilty of making forged documents in order to stay in Pakistan.

Malir Additional District and Sessions Judge Mohammad Shahid Shafiq pronounced his verdict after recording evidence and final arguments from both sides.

The court sentenced them to three years in prison under the Foreigners Act and one year under Section 420 of the Pakistan Penal Code. However, both the sentences would run concurrently.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs10,000 on each convict and directed the jail authorities to deport them after the completion of their terms.

According to the prosecution, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), in two separate raids, had arrested seven Bengalis at Karachi airport following their arrival from Dhaka in Sept 2009. The FIA found counterfeit Pakistani passports and other documents from their possession.

Two cases (FIR 294/09 and 317/09) were registered against the accused under Sections 3, 4, 13 and 14 of the Foreigners Act and Sections 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine as forged document) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code at the FIA crime circle, Karachi.

The court extended the benefit of Section 382-B (period of detention to be considered while awarding sentence of imprisonment) of the criminal procedure code to all the convicts.

The accused were produced in court in custody and following the pronouncement of the verdict they were remanded back to prison along with their conviction warrants to serve out the remainder of their sentence.

Former TCP chairman, others remanded A judicial magistrate (south) on Monday remanded a former chairman of the Trading Corporation of Pakistan and four others in FIA custody till Nov 25 in a case pertaining to import of substandard wheat.

The five suspects — former TCP chairman Abdul Malik, Adil Mokhra, Saeed Abdul Qadir, Anjum Iqbal Warsi and Mohammad Iqbal Sheikh — were arrested in Lahore on Nov 13 for their alleged involvement in misappropriating millions of rupees by importing substandard wheat in 2008.

The FIA produced the suspects before Judicial Magistrate Ghulam Farooq Sheikh for remand and the court remanded them in the FIA custody for three days and directed the officials to produce them on the next hearing. No security for prosecutors Lawyers representing the state in jail trials of alleged militants of several proscribed outfits have said that the government has not taken any measure for their security despite the fact that they had communicated to the authorities concerned that they were facing death threats.

However, in a related development, the AIG (legal) has sent a latter to the city police chief in which he had stated that security should be provided to the prosecutors of the anti-terrorism courts in Karachi.