SUKKUR: An anti-terrorism court in Sukkur sentenced six individuals to life imprisonment in connection with the murder of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) leader Dr. Khalid Mehmood Soomro.
Judge Abdul Rehman Qazi announced the verdict at Sukkur Central Jail, where strict security measures were enforced. The convicts were also sentenced to seven years for weapons charges and imposed with heavy fines for their crimes.
The former senator was gunned down on November 29, 2014, when he was leaving a mosque attached to a seminary in Sukkur early in the morning in Gulshan-e-Iqbal area of Sukkur.
The court held 17 witnesses during more than 450 hearings of the case, which was reserved for a verdict on December 13. Security measures were intensified at the Central Jail Sukkur, where the special court convened to announce the decision.
The six accused individuals—Hanif Bhutto, Sarang Totani, Mushtaq Mehr, Darya Khan Jamali, Latif Jamali, and Altaf Jamali—have been in custody since December 2014.
They were convicted of murder and terrorism charges, and each was handed life sentences along with seven years for illegal possession of firearms. In response to the verdict, Maulana Rashid Mahmood Soomro, expressed his dissatisfaction with the judgment, stating that the punishment should have been death, and announced plans to appeal the decision in the high court.
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