INDIA: DEATH FOR RED FORT ACCUSED UPHELD

the Delhi High Court in India upheld the death sentence to Pakistani Lashkar-e-Toiba militant Mohd Ashfaq in the seven year old Red Fort attack case. The Court acquitted six others including Ashfaq’s Indian wife Rehamana Yosuf Farooqui and Srinagar-based father-and-son duo Nazir Ahmed Qasid and Farooq Ahmed Qasid, who were earlier sentenced to life imprisonment. Three soldiers were killed when 6 terrorists stormed Red Fort in December 2000 and fired weapons indiscriminately, killing three army personnel. “Death sentence is the only appropriate punishment which Mohammed Ashfaq deserves and we have no hesitation in affirming that sentence,” a division bench of Justices RS Sodhi and PK Bhasin said. The Bench upheld the trial court findings holding Ashfaq guilty of murder, criminal conspiracy, cheating under the IPC and under various provisions of the Explosives and the Foreigners’ Act. However, the Bench criticised the lower court verdict, convicting six other accused, saying “We became anxious to find out as to how the six accused had been found guilty by the trial judge when despite our digging deep into the prosecution evidence, we could not find sufficient evidence against them.”