ISLAMABAD: Chief of the Army Staff General Qamar Bajwa has confirmed the death sentence awarded to 13 hardcore militants who were involved in heinous offences related to terrorism, including killing of innocent civilians and security personnel, according to the Inter-Services Public Relations.

Among these convicted terrorists is Latif Mehsud, former deputy chief of the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

According to an ISPR statement, following are some of the well-known attacks for which these terrorists had been awarded death sentences: attacks on Bacha Khan University, Charsada, (January, 2016), Parade Lane Mosque, Rawalpindi, (December, 2009), Marriot Hotel, Islamabad, (September, 2008), office of the World Vision NGO, Mansehra, (March, 2010) and an educational institution in Nawagai Buner (2009).

On the whole the 13 convicted terrorists killed 325 people and injured 366 others.

Latif Mehsud was reportedly handed over to Pakistan by the US military from Afghanistan. The second-in-command of then TTP chief Hakeemullah Mehsud, Latif Mehsud was arrested by Afghan army in 2013 and was held at the Bagram airbase till his handing over to Pakistan.

Former deputy chief of TTP among those set to face the gallows

Mehsud “was involved in killing of innocent civilians and attacking Law Enforcement Agencies of Pakistan, which resulted in death of 150 civilians (members and attendees of local Jirga) and 7 soldiers of Frontier Constabulary,” the ISPR statement said.

The jirga in Orakzai was attacked in October, 2008.

The military courts also announced conviction in Marriott and Parade Lane bombing cases.

The ISPR statement said Arafat was involved in attacks on Marriott Hotel, Islamabad, and Parade Lane Mosque, Rawalpindi, which resulted in the killing of 110 people. Around 330 other people were injured in these attacks. His affiliation was not announced. The banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi (LJ), as per publicly available details, was involved in the attack on the Marriott Hotel that killed over 50 people.

The Parade Lane mosque attack was, meanwhile, initially blamed on Tehreek-i-Islami, a splinter group of Jamaat-i-Islami, but later the links of people related to the attack were traced to Al Qaeda and the TTP.

Four terrorists — Wahid Ali, Akbar Ali, Mohammad Riaz and Noor Ullah — were convicted and sentenced to death for their role in the Bacha Khan University attack. The attack in which 21 people were killed was carried out by TTP’s Tariq Gidar group. One of the convicts, Riaz is a brother-in-law of Gidar group’s then No 2 Mullah Zakir, who had also overseen the execution of the attack. He had kept the terrorists at his home before they left for carrying out the attack. Akbar had received the terrorists at the Pak-Afghan border and transported them to Mardan for execution of the attack. The other two facilitated the attack.

Another terrorist, Abdul Rehman, was convicted for slaughtering captured SSG commandos Capt Najam Riaz Raja, Capt Juniad Khan, Naik Shahid Rasool, and Lance Naik Shakeel Ahmed during operation in Swat in 2009. Earlier, Hanifa of TTP had been given death sentence in the same case.

In another case, Syed Qasim Shah, a TTP militant, got death sentence for attacking the office of World Vision NGO, in which its six Pakistani employees were killed.

Other terrorists who have been convicted and sentenced to death are: Mian Said Raheem who was involved in the killing of 15 civilians, including members of a local jirga and who provided assistance in the murder of one Imran; Noor Mohammad who was found guilty of attacking personnel of armed forces and law enforcement agencies which resulted in the death of Naik Nadeem Yousaf and who was also involved in the kidnapping of civilian Dr Syed Jamshed Haider; and Sher Ali who was involved in the killing of Naib Subedar Abdul Khaliq, Naik Qaiser Khan, Sepoy Mohsin Khan, Sepoy Imran Khan, Sepoy Sarfraz Ahmed, Sepoy Mohammad Ali, Sepoy Sajid, Mohammad Afzal Khan, Shah Dawran and Aman Ullah.

Meanwhile, Mohammad Usman and Mohammad Waqar Faisal of the LJ were awarded capital punishment for different attacks in D.I. Khan.

Published in Dawn, December 17th, 2016