Two indicted in killing of 11 Frenchmen
After a delay of more than three months, formal charges were finally laid against two suspected militants accused of planning a deadly suicide bombing outside the Sheraton Hotel in Karachi in May which killed 14 people, including 11 Frenchmen.
After a delay of more than three months, formal charges were finally laid against two suspected militants accused of planning a deadly suicide bombing outside the Sheraton Hotel in Karachi in May which killed 14 people, including 11 Frenchmen.
Anti-Terrorism Court judge Feroze Mahmood Bhatti read the charges against Asif Zaheer and his accomplice Rizwan Ahmed alias Basheer in a heavily guarded courtroom inside the Karachi Central Jail.
The charges included terrorism, murder, possession of explosives and conspiracy to murder. Both accused denied the charges and pleaded that they were innocent.
Two other suspected militants - Mohammed Sohail and Adnan Qamar - will be tried in absentia on similar charges. Police arrested Zaheer in December, while Ahmed was nabbed in January.
In their initial statements to the police, the pair had proudly confessed to their crime, saying that they planned it as a service to Islam. But in the specially-built courtroom inside the jail, they denied their involvement in the attack when the judge asked them whether they pleaded guilty to these offences.
Later, they signed statements prepared by their lawyers denying their involvement in the suicide attack of May 8. The militants allegedly packed a car with explosives and blew it up outside the hotel killing 11 French technicians who were helping Pakistan build submarines. Three Pakistanis, including the suicide bomber Rasheed, were also killed.
The judge said that the militants belonged to an outlawed Islamic group Harkat-ul Ansar. Earlier, the police said that they were members of a shadowy group called Harkat-ul Mujahideen Al Alami, which is a dissident faction of the Harkat-ul Mujahideen fighting Indian rule in the Himalayan region of Kashmir.
The Harkat-ul Mujahideen was formed by members of the Harkat-ul Ansar when it was declared a terrorist organisation by the U.S. in the late 1990s.
Lawyers said that if found guilty, the suspect militants would get the death sentence. But they would have a right to appeal. The pair appeared calm while sitting in a cage-like separate enclosure. They were not allowed to talk to the press.
Maula Bux Bhatti, a state prosecutor, said the prosecution has a strong case against the accused. "We will try to conclude the case as early as possible," he told reporters. The prosecution plans to present 30 witnesses, he said. The trial is due to start tomorrow.
Pakistan has witnessed a series of terrorist attacks in recent months, especially last year when Westerners came under attack by the extremists.
