Court award life term to 5 JeM terrorists

New Delhi, Jan 6 (PTI) A Delhi court on Thursday
sentenced five Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) men to life imprisonment
for indulging in terrorist activities, terming them as
"merchants of death and destruction".
"India's war against terrorism is to be waged not only by
security measures but also by all organs of the state,
including the judiciary which must share the responsibility of
dealing with such elements with an iron hand", Additional
Sessions Judge R K Gauba said.
Pronouncing the sentence against convicts Noor Mohammad
Tantre, Pervaiz Ahmed Mir, Faroz Ahmed Bhat and two brothers
Atiq-uz-Zama and Raees-uz-Zama, the court said the challenge
posed by terrorism has to be met head on by a multi-pronged
strategy.
The court, which had on January 3 convicted them for
offences under stringent Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA),
Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Explosive Substances Act, also
imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 each on them.
It refused to allow a plea of defence counsel M S Khan
for a lenient view of the convicts on the ground that they
had already spent over seven years in jail and had families to
look after.
"These foot soldiers of forces inimical to India and bent
upon sabotaging the peace and tranquillity here, besides
posing a serious threat to its unity, sovereignty and
integrity, have to be neutralised.
"In order that they are suitably de-fanged and blunted so
as to be of no further use to the enemy, it is imperative that
these merchants of death and destruction are locked away for
their remaining lives, which is the course permissible in the
statutory prescriptions provided for a large number of
offences committed by them," the court said in its seven-page
order.
Convicts Raees and Atiq, who hail from Sikandrabad in
Uttar Pradesh, are brothers of Habibullah, who was gunned down
by Delhi Police along with Pakistani national Zahoor in an
encounter on August 30, 2003, in the Millennium Park near
Nizamuddin Bridge here.
All the five militants were arrested by the Delhi Police
on August 30-31, 2003, following the encounter.
Besides arms and ammunition, the police also claimed to
have recovered a sum of Rs 19.20 lakh from prime accused
Tantray who was held from Sadar Bazar here.
In its order, the court also referred to various
terrorist attacks in the country, including that of Mumbai
terror attack in November 2008, Parliament attack and
different bomb blasts to emphasise that those involved were
found to be having connection with Pakistan.