An anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Sukkur on Friday sentenced six individuals to life imprisonment in the murder case of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) leader Dr Khalid Mahmood Soomro.
The convicts were also handed seven-year terms for weapons charges and fined heavily for their crimes.
Judge Abdul Rehman Qazi announced the decision in a short verdict at Sukkur Central Jail, where tight security was in place. The court had reserved its decision on December 13 following extensive proceedings involving over 450 hearings and testimony from 17 witnesses.
The convicts, identified as Hanif Bhutto, Sarang Totani, Mushtaq Mehr, Darya Khan Jamali, Altaf Jamali, and Latif Jamali, were accused of killing Soomro on November 29, 2014.
They have been in custody since December 2014.
Family members of the victim, who was also a former senator, including Rashid Mahmood Soomro and local JUI-F leaders, were present in court during the verdict.
The convicts should have been given the death penalty, said Rashid, the deceased JUI-F leader’s son. “We will now knock on the high court’s doors,” he vowed.
Doctor Soomro, who was the secretary general of the party at that time, was offering his morning prayers when unidentified gunmen entered the mosque and shot him dead.
