KARACHI, Nov 8: The judge of an anti-terrorism court, Aley Maqbool Rizvi, framed charges on Friday against all the five accused in the US consulate suicide bombing case.

The accused are Mohammed Imran, Mohammed Hanif, alleged to be the chief and deputy chief of the Harkatul Mujahideen Al-Aalmi, respectively, and Sharib, Ashraf and Zubair, workers of the organization.

They were charged with multiple murders, spreading terrorism, bomb explosion to destroy the American consulate building at Karachi, conspiracy to kill US citizens, and causing injury to dozens of people.

Most of the charges carry death penalty, if proved.

According to the prosecution, on June 14 unidentified men rammed a Suzuki pickup, carrying explosives, against the safety wall of the US consulate building.

Twelve persons were killed in the explosion and more than two dozen cars were destroyed. Forty persons were seriously injured.

All the accused pleaded not guilty after which the court fixed Nov 19 for commencement of trial against them.

Khawaja Naveed Ahmed, Abdul Waheed Katpar and Raza Abidi, counsel for the accused, were present when the court framed the charges. —APP