SHC upholds death sentence of LeJ man in suicide bombing case

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday dismissed the appeal of a member of the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) against his conviction in the 2005 Madinatul Ilm suicide bombing case and upheld his death sentence awarded to him by an anti-terrorism court.

Syed Mohammad Tehseen was sentenced to death on March 22, 2007. However, a co-accused in the case, Mufti Mohammad Altaf, was acquitted on the benefit of doubt. Tehseen and Altaf were arraigned along with other absconding co-accused for planning the suicide attack at the Imambargah Madinatul Ilm in Gulshan-e-Iqbal on May 30, 2005 that left Mohammad Ali, Fida Hussain and police head constable Raja Arshad dead and more than 22 others wounded.

One of the accused, Asif, was killed by the police when he arrived along with other co-accused for the attack, but the suicide bomber managed to enter the Imambargah in the neighbourhood’s Block 5 and blow himself up in the veranda during the Maghrib prayer.

The appellant’s counsel said the prosecution had failed to prove the charges against his client and he was falsely implicated by the police. He said the appellant was a passer-by and the police had implicated him in the crime to show its efficiency.

He said an identification parade was not conducted in accordance with the law and requested the court to set aside the conviction because the trial court had already acquitted a co-accused.

The deputy prosecutor general supported the prosecution’s case and said the prosecution had proved the charges against Tehseen, who was arrested red-handed from the site of the attack and a weapon was also found on him. The prosecution placed 32 witnesses, including three eyewitnesses, to prove the guilt.

The SHC’s division bench headed by Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha observed that the appellant and his accomplices carried out multiple acts of premeditated murder on sectarian grounds and dismissed the appeal.