DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Dec 5: An anti-terrorism court convicted the mastermind of two suicide attacks in Dera Ismail Khan on different counts and sentenced him to 339 years rigorous imprisonment with a fine of Rs150,000.

The court presided over by Mr Khwaja Wajihuddin pronounced that the prosecution proved the cases against 28-year-old Ahmad Nawaz alias Dhallu, a resident of D.I. Khan. The court also declared five of the absconding accused -- Qari Abdul Zahir alias Qari Zafar, Fazalur Rehman, Mohammad Iqbal, Qari Asif and Imran alias Khitab -- proclaimed offenders and issued their perpetual arrest warrants.

In one of the incidents, four suicide bombers had attacked the office of district police officer that resulted in the death of four policeman and injuries to seven others. A civilian was also injured in the attack. The FIR of the case was registered at Cantt police station on Jan 14, 2012.

In the other incident, a suicide bomber had blown up himself near a vehicle carrying two deputy superintendents of police -- Abdul Ghafoor and Salahuddin -- and other policemen near Commissionary Bazaar on March 4, 2012. Four policemen including Abdul Ghafoor were injured in the attack.

The accused was arrested on Sept 11, 2012. He had confessed to his crime after remaining in the custody of police. Police had also recovered certain video footages from his possession wherein he was shown guiding the suicide bombers, who had carried out the acts of terrorism.

The public prosecutor, Sheikh Mohammad Jehanzeb, appeared for the state while Advocate Rab Nawaz represented the accused. In the first case, the accused was sentenced to life imprisonment on four counts under Section 302/149 of Pakistan Penal Code. He was again sentenced to life imprisonment on four counts under different sections of Anti-Terrorism Act including 7(a), 21-I and 21-J.

He was further convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment under Section 120B of PPC. For injuring eight persons, the accused was convicted on eight counts and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment.

Similarly, he was sentenced to life imprisonment under the Explosive Substance Act. He would undergo a total of 243 years imprisonment in that case.

In the second case he would undergo a total of 96 years imprisonment. The court extended the convict the benefit of Section 382-B of Criminal Procedure Code under which the period he had already spent in prison would be counted in his prison term.