Indian Court Sentences Three Pakistani Militants to Death

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, April 28, 2002

Indian Court Sentences Three Pakistani Militants to Death

A Delhi court sentenced three Pakistani militants to death on Saturday for kidnapping four foreign tourists including an American in New Delhi in 1994.

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A Delhi court sentenced three Pakistani militants to death on Saturday for kidnapping four foreign tourists including an American in New Delhi in 1994.

Nazir Khan, Abdul Rahim and Naser Mehmood Sodozey, claimed to be members of Markat-Ul-Ansar, a Moslem group, were sentenced to death by special judge S. N. Dhingra while another three, Nurul Amin, Mohd Sayeed and Mahmood, were sentenced to life imprisonment, according to the court.

The court, However, had dropped charges in 1999 against British National Sheikh, who is facing trial in Pakistan for kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Danial Pearls earlier this year.

The charges against him were dropped as part of a deal by the Indian government with militants to secure the release of passengers aboard an Indian Airlines flight, which was hijacked from Kathmandu of Nepal to Kandhar in Afghanistan toward the end of 1999.

The court also imposed a fine of 50,000 rupees (some 1,020 U.S. dollars) on each of the six accused and on default of payment, the three Indians sentenced to life imprisonment would undergo rigorous imprisonment of two years each, the court ruled.

Stating that the accused did not deserve any leniency for the crime they had committed, the court separately sentenced the six accused for life for indulging in terrorist activities and imposed a fine of 25,000 rupees (about 510 dollars) on them.

Prosecution alleged that the militants had kidnapped American tourist Bela Joseph Nuss and three British nationals, Christopher Miles Crosten, Rhys Curjel Partridge and Paul Banjamin Rideout, from Connaught Place, a central market in New Delhi, on October 20, 1994, to put pressure on the Indian government to release 10 hard-core terrorists from jail.

According to the chargesheet filed by the police, Sheikh, who was holding a British passport, had abducted the foreigners along with his accomplices after "befriending" them.

The American was rescued from the north state of Uttar Pradesh while the three British nationals were rescued from Saharanpur, 187 kilometers north of New Delhi, after an encounter between police and the militants.

Police said that during the captivity of the hostages, the accused along with their associates kept them under constant threat of killing and took their photographs and wrote threatening letters to British High Commission in the country as well as several foreign media groups.

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