An Anti-Terrorism Court has awarded death penalty to four, ordered life imprisonment to three brothers, and released one accused involved in a suicide attack on Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz in July 2004, court officials said. The court presided over by Judge Safdar Hussain Malik handed down its verdict late Monday night at the central jail of Rawalpindi, near Islamabad, amid high security. Qari Hashmat Khan, Anwar Badsha, Maulvi Sadeeq and Suleman were sentenced to death while Abdul Munam, Nisar Ahmad and Abdul Basit were given life term. Qari Suleman was acquitted for lack of evidence. While the prime minister survived the attack, nine people including the suicide bomber had been killed when an election rally in Fateh Jang, 40 kilometers from Islamabad, was attacked targeting Aziz on July 30, 2004. At the time, he was getting into his car. His driver was among the dead. The convicts were sentenced for planning and abetting the attack. Four suspected ringleaders of the attack remain at large. All the convicted men are Pakistanis and members of the outlawed Jaish-e-Muhammad. The three men who got life imprisonment were brothers arrested in January 2005 for allegedly harbouring the two suicide bombers before the attack.
