BAHAWALPUR: An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) on Friday sentenced three members of the banned Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) to death along with a fine and confiscation of properties in a pipeline blast case.

Four people were killed when the convicts blew up the gas pipeline near Abadpur in Rahim Yar Khan in 2014.

According to a Counter-Terrorism Department spokesman, convicts Muhammad Ramzan, Miawa and Mehar Din bombed the main gas pipeline coming from Sui and running along the railway track in Abadpur.

He said some nearby houses collapsed because of the impact of the blast, leaving three men and a woman dead. Crops around the blast site were burnt, he added.

The Abadpur police had booked the militants under Sections 302/34 of the Pakistan Penal Code, 3/4 of the Explosives Act and 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act. A charge-sheet against them was submitted to the Bahawalpur ATC.

In the verdict, the judge announced Rs500,000 fine which would be paid to legal heirs of the deceased and ordered confiscation of the convicts’ properties in favour of the government.

Published in Dawn, November 11th, 2017