Lahore: An anti-terrorism court in Pakistan on Tuesday sentenced three people to life imprisonment for their role in a powerful bomb blast outside the residence of Mumbai attack mastermind and Jamaat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed in June 2021. In which three people were killed. Three people were killed and over 20 others were injured in the blast outside Saeed’s Johar Town residence here on June 23, 2021, which also damaged several houses, shops and vehicles in the area. Last year, an anti-terrorism court in Lahore sentenced four others to death in the case. “On Tuesday, ATC-1 Lahore awarded death sentence to Samiul Haque, Uzair Akbar and Naveed Akhtar in the Jauhar Town bomb blast case after the prosecution presented evidence against them,” a court official told PTI. The official said the suspects have been convicted under various sections of the Pakistan Penal Code. The convicts will have to undergo life imprisonment and 10 years rigorous imprisonment which will run concurrently, he said.
Judge Aber Gul Khan pronounced the verdict during an in-camera hearing at the high-security Kot Lakhpat Jail here. The official said the three convicts were facilitators of the prime suspects.
In January 2022, the ATC Lahore awarded death sentences to Eid Gul of the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Peter Paul David, Sajjad Shah and Ziaullah in nine cases in this case.
Another suspect, Ayesha Bibi, was sentenced to five years in prison. According to the CTD, Eid Gul had planted explosives in the car used in the blast. The car belonged to Peter Paul David and the other three – Sajjad Shah, Ziaullah and Ayesha – were the facilitators.
The Punjab government claimed to have traced the network of all the “ten suspects” involved in the blast.
Saeed, 72, the UN-designated terrorist on whom the US has placed a USD 10 million bounty, was arrested in July 2019 in terror financing cases.
The Saeed-led Jamaat-ud-Dawa is the flagship organization of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), responsible for carrying out the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people, including six Americans.