KARACHI, March 5: An anti-terrorism court on Wednesday sentenced to death an Al Qaeda militant in a 2006 suicide attack that killed a US diplomat near the consulate.

However, the ATC acquitted a co-accused for lack of evidence against him.

Judge Ahmed Nawaz Shaikh of ATC-III pronounced the verdict after recording the final arguments of both sides.

The court awarded the death penalty to Anwarul Haq on four counts, life imprisonment on three counts and also imposed a fine of Rs1.5 million. In case of non-payment, the convict would have to undergo an additional imprisonment of three years.

According to the verdict, the prosecution proved the involvement of Anwarul Haq in the case while it failed to produce any solid evidence against co-accused Usman Ghani.

Haq and Ghani were charged with masterminding the suicide attack outside the American consulate on March 2, 2006 that left four people dead, including US diplomat David Foy, and 54 others injured.

According to the prosecution, the suspected suicide bomber, who was later identified as Mohammad Tahir, had smashed a car packed with explosives into the vehicle carrying the US diplomat. It said that the suspects along with the suicide bomber had parked the vehicle bearing registration number AGE-750 (original registration number was HD-750) laden with explosives in the parking area of the Naval Central Surgery Hospital and carried out their plan by crashing the car into the consulate vehicle.

Earlier, defence counsel Mushatq Ahmed, representing accused Usman Ghani, requested the court to acquit his client since the prosecution had failed to prove his involvement in the case.

He submitted before the court that there was no evidence against the accused except the statements of two eyewitnesses, Sikandar Hayat and Ali Zaman, but the prosecution had failed to produce any evidence to establish their presence at the site of the crime.

He argued that Abdullah Kakar, the owner of the Naval Hospital canteen where Sikandar Hayat was working, had neither mentioned the presence of the witnesses in his statements nor was examined by the prosecution before the trial court.

He further submitted that the police did not mention the presence of the witnesses at the crime scene in their initial reports and they were included in the case as eyewitnesses after March 21.

The counsel objected to the identification parade and said it was not conducted according to law.

Referring to the confessional statement of Anwarul Haq, in which he had admitted to having committed the crime and held his co-accused equally responsible for it, the defence counsel argued that the confessional statement of one accused could not be used against the co-accused.

Ilyas Khan, the defence counsel for Anwarul Haq, submitted before the court that his client was falsely implicated in the case and pleaded for his acquittal.

He further submitted that the confessional statement of the accused was recorded under pressure and legal formalities were not completed in this regard.

He argued that there were obvious contradictions in the statements of the prosecution witnesses and their presence on the blast site was also doubtful while eyewitnesses were unlawfully placed by the prosecution in the witnesses’ list.

The counsel said the prosecution did not produce any evidence to support the presence of the eyewitnesses outside Naval Hospital’s canteen and seeing the accused, adding that the prosecution had neither examined the security guards of the hospital nor produced them before the trial court.

Special Public Prosecutor Naimat Ali Randhawa appeared on behalf of the state. He submitted before the court that the prosecution had proved the involvement of the accused in the case and pleaded for giving him capital punishment.

He argued that the eyewitnesses were present outside the Naval Hospital’s canteen and they had confirmed the presence of the accused at the time of the blast.

He further submitted that both accused had helped the suspected suicide bomber and enabled him to reach close to the US diplomat’s car.

The court had examined about 41 prosecution witnesses in the case. The accused were arrested on March 21, 2006 and sent in judicial custody. Another accused, Mohammad Zafar alias Qari Zafar, was declared absconder in the case.