Naimat Khan
KARACHI: Sindh High Court (SHC) on Tuesday converted into life imprisonment the death sentence being handed down to the accused of bomb blast on American consulate in Karachi over eleven years ago.
Anwarul Haq, one of the accused of the bomb attack, was given death sentence by an Anti Terrorism Court in Karachi on March 5, 2008 after the prosecution ‘proved him guilty of the bomb blast’.
On the outset of proceedings here on Tuesday, prosecutor submitted to the court that a man, Raja Tahir, had attacked American consulate on March 2, 2006, in which four including an American diplomat was killed whereas thirty others were wounded.
On March 5, 2008, the ATC handed down death sentence to Anwarul Haq whereas acquitting another suspect, named Usman Ghani, due to lack of evidences against him. The prosecutor further told that central accused, Qari Zafar, who was absconding after the attack, has already been killed in a drone strike.
When asked by court whether the family wanted to plead the case on merit or wanted to convert death sentence for the accused into life term, counsel of the suspect, named Farooq Advocate, submitted to SHC that the ATC had given sentence to Mr Haq, while ignoring evidences and “he was handed down capital punishment for being a facilitator and not central accused”.
The counsel of accused further told the court that Anwarul Haq had been associated with the Pakistan Navy and one of his leg had to be cutoff due to a ‘mine blast’ in his home town of tank. The counsel of Mr. Haq prayed to the court that death sentence should be annulled.
The judge remarked that there was lack of correspondence in the evidences brought before could against the suspect. As such the court converted the sentence of Anwarul Haq into life imprisonment.
On March 2, 2006, a suicide car bomb killed four people and injured thirty outside the Marriott Hotel in Karachi, which is about 20 yards from the consulate.
According to reports, among the dead was David Foy, an American diplomat and three Pakistanis. Security experts and intelligence sources said that it appeared that Foy was the direct target of the bomber, who detonated his vehicle in the car park behind the consulate as Foy arrived.
The bomb was reported to be the most powerful attack of its kind in Karachi, and it left a two-meter crater in the car park and destroyed at least ten nearby cars.
