ISLAMABAD: A military court of appeal on Friday, by rejecting appeals of convicted ex-army men in the GHQ attack case, maintained the punishments awarded in August last year, DawnNews reported.

The military court in Rawalpindi had sentenced to death a former soldier, Aqeel alias Dr Usman, over an attack in 2009 on the Pakistan Army Headquarters (GHQ) and awarded prison terms to the seven others.

The former soldier of the army’s medical corps was given the maximum punishment of death while another retired soldier, Imran Siddiq, was awarded life imprisonment.

Three civilians — Khaliqur Rehman, Mohammad Usman and Wajid Mehmood — were given life terms while two others, Mohammad Adnan and Tahir Shafiq (both civilians), got eight and seven years jail sentence respectively.

Aqeel was caught injured during the Oct 10, 2009 raid on GHQ by militants while the other serviceman and five civilians were found guilty of abetment.

Eleven soldiers had lost their lives in the attack when 10 heavily armed militants, wearing suicide vests, stormed the GHQ, holding off commandos for hours.