ISLAMABAD: The military court has completed the trial of the eleven civilian persons accused of attack on the GHQ and in this regard the sentence against them can be announced anytime.
According to the BBC, the military court conducted the hearing of the case for five months at an unidentified place and completed the court martial hearing on Monday.
The BBC further claimed that the sentence can be announced anytime and under military rules the maximum punishment for attacking the defence installations was capital punishment.
A Brigadier of the Pakistan Army presided over the field general court martial hearing during the five months period and the accused were given the right to defend themselves through their lawyers.
However, the BBC quoted the defence lawyers as saying the defence witnesses either hesitated to appear before the military court or went ’missing’ before the day of hearing.
On October 10, 2009 ten assailants armed with heavy ammunition and hand grenades broke into the GHQ main building after killing the guards at the central gates. Inside they took dozens of GHQ personnel hostage for many hours. In the return action by military forces, nine out of ten assailants were killed while one militant Aqeel alias Dr Usman was captured in injured condition.
Eleven personnel of the armed forces were also martyred in the attack.
The military court tried a total eleven civilian persons. Aqeel and his accomplice a retired army man have retired from the army. Five civilians who have been tried in the case are identified as Khaliqur Rehman, Usman Akka, Wajid Mehmood, Muhammad Adnan and Tahir Shafique.
According to the BBC, these persons are considered Aqeel’s friends and knew about his plan to attack the GHQ. They were also cooperating with Aqeel in carrying out deadly attack on the GHQ, claimed the BBC.
Advocate Inamur Rehman a member of defence counsels team while talking to the BBC said neither they nor the relatives of the accused wanted to give any comment on the case before the announcement of the verdict. He, however, said at the beginning of the trial while talking to BBC he had termed the trial of civilian persons in the military courts as violation of the Constitution.
In Pakistan, a military court’s decision cannot be challenged in the country’s courts. A few days ago, Rawalpindi Bar too had demanded for the right of appeal against the military courts’ decisions. Online
