Pakistan court sentences 5 Al-Qaeda terrorists to 16 years each in jail

An anti-terrorism court in Pakistan's Punjab province has sentenced five al-Qaeda terrorists to 16-year jail term each on different charges.

The Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Gujranwala announced its verdict on Thursday.

Mohammad Yaqoob (commander), Abdullah Umair, Ahmadur Rehman, Asim Akbar Saeed, and Muhammad Yousaf, have been handed down five years imprisonment for terror financing, seven years for keeping explosives, three years for supporting proscribed al-Qaeda and one year for keeping literature of al-Qaeda.

The ATC has also ordered confiscating of the convicts' personal properties and imposed a fine of Rs 180,000 each on them.

The terrorists were also running a media cell of the al-Qaeda in the country.

"It is a very important verdict where al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) operatives have been convicted after terrorism financing charges proved true against the convicts," the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) of Punjab police said in a statement.

The CTD said these terrorists were arrested last year.

“They had been running its (the outfit) propaganda campaign online and physically from a secret location in Karachi,” it said.

Giving details of the convicts, the CTD said Muhammad Yaqoob, alias Gora, is a resident of Karachi and commander of local chapter of the organisation. He joined the AQIS in 2014.

"Yaqoob was also an expert in making forged documents. He was instrumental in running propaganda campaigns especially on social media," the CTD said.

Asim Akbar, alias Saeed, alias Baba, alias Bazurg, alias Jaffer, was a resident of Lahore associated with al-Qaeda since 2005.

"He was in charge of the media cell. He trained many activists of the AQIS in media graphics and animations with Abu Hasham who was killed in Afghanistan," it said.

Another convicted terrorist Abdullah Umair, alias Hanzala, is a resident of Karachi and he joined the organisation in 2010.

"Umair remained a close aide of the present operational/militant commander of AQIS Atif Ghauri, alias Yahya, who was in Afghanistan. He was coordinating activities of the AQIS in Pakistan and Afghanistan," it said.

The CTD further said that Ahmadur Rehman of Karachi joined al-Qaeda in 2015 and was trained for 'urban ambush' by previous emir of the organisation Asim Umar, who was recently killed in Afghanistan.

Convict Yousaf of Karachi is the brother of AQIS commander Yaqoob.