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SC commutes death sentence of Pak terrorists
Our Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, August 28
Though expressing grave concern over spreading of terror by Pakistan-based militant outfits in India, the Supreme Court has disagreed with the verdict of a Special Court here awarding death sentence to three accomplices of Harkat-ul-Mujahidin terrorist Umar Sheikh. Sheikh was given capital punishment by a Pakistani court for the kidnapping and brutally murdering Wall Street Journal correspondent Daniel Pearl.

Converting their death sentence into life imprisonment, a Bench comprising Mr Justice Doraiswamy Raju and Mr Justice Arijit Pasayat ruled that no “distinctive features” had been indicated to impose the capital punishment on the three Pakistani nationals — Nazir Khan, Abdul Rahim and Naser Mohmood — when compared with the life imprisonment given to their three other associates — Narul Amin, Mohmmed Sayeed and Mohmood.

Considering the provisions laid down under TADA and the facts and circumstances, “we feel the imposition of death sentence is not at any rate a compulsion in this case and cannot be imposed,” the judges said, adding: “The entire planning of kidnapping was masterminded and executed by Umar Sheikh, who managed to get out of the net of the law... and in his case, the death sentence may have been appropriate.”

The court ruled that the life sentence in their case would be of full 20 years’ jail term with no scope of remission, considering the gravity of the offence.

Six Pak boys released

Gujarat, August 28
After Munir bade a cheerful adieu to India, it is the turn of six more Pakistani boys, all of them Hindus, to look forward to a pleasant journey back home to be reunited with their parents in Pakistan.

These six Pakistani boys had strayed into Indian territory from the Banaskantha border in Gujarat some 14 months ago and were kept in the Palanpur remand home. The boys have now been released by the juvenile court and were today sent to Delhi from Bhuj.

“The people in the remand home treated us well,” 15-year-old Ramji said during their brief halt at the Palanpur taluka police station in Banaskantha district. ‘’The memories of the stay will remain forever etched in our hearts,’’ the boy says.

After being freed by the juvenile court at Palanpur, the boys were kept at the joint interrogation centre at Bhuj for a week before being sent to the Pakistan embassy in Delhi.

The boys belong to the Koli community and hail from border villages like Gadhadacharan, Dhingora, Ratra and Uthakpaliya. The boys had endeared themselves to police personnel at the border police station of Mavasari so much so that the personnel would cook food for the boys at their own expenses. — UNI