The Delhi High Court on Thursday held Lashkar-e-Taiba militant and Pakistan national Mohammed Arif alias Mohammed Ashfaq guilty of waging war against the state and upheld the subordinate court verdict. The subordinate  court had awarded him death penalty for the shoot-out at the historic Red Fort in December 2000, in which three people including two jawans were killed.


A division bench headed by Justice R S Sodhi found Ashfaq guilty of attacking the Red Fort.

However, the court acquitted six others – Sadakat Ali, Rehmana Yusuf  Farooqui, Matloob Alam, Farooq Ahmed Qasid, Babar Mohsin Baghwala and Nazir Ahmed, who were also convicted by the subordinate court, due to lack of evidence.

Ashfaq’s Indian wife Rehmana was also convicted for conspiracy and awarded life term. She has been acquitted.

Life-term to two
The court had awarded life imprisonment to two others who hail from Jammu and Kashmir - Nazir Ahmed Qasid and his son Farooq Ahmed Qasid. They were also found guilty of waging war against the state and criminal conspiracy.

Two other accused —Babar Mohsin Baghwala and Matloob Alam — were sentenced to seven years rigorous imprisonment for their complicity in the attack.

It was Baghwala, a resident of Srinagar, who drove Ashfaq around the capital and showed him the key government and military installations. He has been found guilty of harbouring Ashfaq and attempting  to protect him.

A civilian and two soldiers of the Rajputana Rifles were killed in the attack on December 22, 2000.

During the proceedings, the Delhi police argued that the Red Fort shoot-out was a plot of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba.

The LeT militants sneaked into the 17th century monument at around 9 pm on December 22, 2000. They fired indiscriminately on the guards of the 7th Battalion of the Rajputana Rifles stationed there, killing jawans Abdullah Thakur and Uma Shankar and a civilian, Ashok Kumar.