four Sunni Muslim militants were sentenced to death by a Pakistani anti terrorism court

four Sunni Muslim militants were sentenced to death by a Pakistani anti terrorism court for the 2002 massacre of 14 Shiites.
Judge Manzoor Ahmed Mirza convicted Hameedullah Mujahid, Fazal Hamid, Hafiz Naseer Akhtar and Tahir Mahmood but acquitted five others, all members of the banned militant Lashkar Jhangvi (LJ) group.
On February 26, 2002, gunmen stormed into Shah Najaf mosque in Rawalpindi city and sprayed bullets at dozens of Shiite Muslims during evening prayers.
Fourteen people were killed and 29 wounded.
The accused were arrested in early 2004 and the verdict follows a year-long trial, Rawalpindi police chief Murrawat Ali Shah said.
Shah said the acquittals would be challenged in a high court. Those convicted could also appeal.
LJ, which had been linked to Al-Qaeda, was outlawed by President Pervez Musharraf in August 2001. In addition to numerous attacks on Shites it was blamed for the murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl, car bomb attacks in Karachi and the 1997 murder of four US oil workers also in Karachi.