SUKKUR: The Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) of Sukkur on Friday sentenced six accused to life imprisonment upon finding them guilty of assassinating Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) general secretary Maulana Dr Khalid Mahmood Soomro outside a mosque, next to his seminary, in Sukkur on Nov 29, 2014.

The trial of the high-profile case was held inside the Sukkur Central Prison for security reasons.

The ATC Judge, Abdul Rahman Qazi, had reserved his verdict in the case on Dec 14 after plaintiff and defence sides, as well as the prosecution, completed their arguments. He pronounced the verdict on Friday.

Besides life imprisonment, the six convicts — Altaf Hussain and Darya Khan, sons of Taj Mohammad Jamali, Lutf Ali, son of Saleem Jamali, Mohammad Hanif, son of Mohammad Akram Bhutto, Mushtaq Ali Mahar, son of Mirza Khan Mahar and Sarang Totani — were ordered to pay a fine of Rs500,000 each.

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They were handed down additional jail terms of seven years on other counts, i.e. possessing illicit weapons, spreading terror and using fake number plates for their vehicles.

Dr Khalid Soomro was shot dead while he was leaving his seminary, next to a mosque in Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Sukkur, after offering Fajr prayers. It was claimed that the assailant(s) was/were riding motorcycles.

A total of 458 hearings had been held during the trial and 17 witnesses were cross-examined in the over a decade-long trial. The six convicts were brought to the ATC from the Sukkur jail when the judgement was pronounced.

They were escorted back to the jail by police.

Strict security measures were taken for the day’s court proceedings. A strong contingent comprising Frontier Constabulary, Rangers and police personnel was deployed around the jail and no unconcerned person was allowed to enter the premises.

Counsel and close relatives of the plaintiff and defence sides were present in the courtroom when the verdict was pronounced.

They included Maulana Rashid Mahmood Soomro, Maulana Nasir Mahmood Soomro and their counsel Advocate Athar Abbas Solangi.

The case was lodged at Sukkur’s SITE police station by Rashid Mahmood Soomro, who is now JUI-F Sindh general secretary. He expressed his dissatisfaction over the verdict while speaking to the media outside the court and later addressing party workers, who had gathered in the nearby Rahri area. He said the convicts must have been awarded capital punishment for assassinating a high-profile personality who was not only a key leader of JUI-F but also the country’s distinguished religious scholar.

Rashid Soomro, who is the son of Dr Khalid Mahmood Soomro, apprehended that the provincial government might have played a role in saving the convicts from death penalty.

“We will go into appeal against the ATC verdict and even fight for generations until complete justice is dispensed to us,” he remarked.

Dr Khalid Soomro was born on May 7, 1959 to a religious family in the Akil village, near Larkana, situated close to the Indus river bank.

He had joined practical politics in 1988 and had actively participated in the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy (MRD) in 1983 during which he was sent to the Sukkur Central Jail. He remained behind bars for nine months.

He had contested for the NA-207 seat against former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and fought for the same seat against PPP’s Faryal Talpur in two general elections.

He remained a member of the Senate from 2006 to 2012. The Nov 29, 2014 attack was the 7th carried out on Dr Soomro.

Published in Dawn, December 21stth, 2024