ISLAMABAD: Five terrorists apparently involved in Safoora Goth massacre and the murder of a prominent social activist in Karachi have challenged their convictions before the Rawalpindi bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC).
On May 12, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) announced the confirmation of death sentences to ‘hardcore terrorists’ — TahirMinhas, Saad Aziz, AsadurRehman, Mohammad AzharIshrat and Hafiz Nasir Ahmed — in nine cases, which included the Safoora Goth carnage and the Sabeen Mahmud murder case.
However after this latest development, convicts had challenged their sentences before the military court of appeals, but the appellate court also upheld their conviction on Aug 20.
In the appeals filed before the LHC through Advocate HashmatHabib, the convicts claim they had been “scapegoated” by law enforcement agencies.
In support of their claim, the petitions state that the five men had been confined in the custody of law enforcement agencies long before the announcement of their arrest by government.
According to their filed petitions, the Judge from military’s legal branch did not give them sufficient time to prepare grounds for an appeal, and were not provided with the copies of court martial proceedings.
