Six sentenced to life for murder of JUI-F’s Khalid Mehmood Soomro Blogging Sole

An anti-terrorism court in Sukkur has sentenced six people to life imprisonment for the murder of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) leader Dr Khalid Mehmood Soomro.

Judge Abdul Rehman Qazi announced the verdict at Sukkur Central Prison, where strict security measures were implemented.

The convicts were also sentenced to seven years in prison for weapons possession and heavy fines for their crimes.

The former senator was shot dead on November 29, 2014, while leaving a mosque attached to a seminary in Sukkur in the Gulshan-e-Iqbal area of ​​Sukkur early in the morning.

The court heard from 17 witnesses during more than 450 hearings in the case, which was reserved for the Dec. 13 verdict. Security measures were beefed up at Sukkur Central Jail, where the special court met to announce the decision.

The six accused – Hanif Bhutto, Sarang Totani, Mushtaq Mehr, Darya Khan Jamali, Latif Jamali and Altaf Jamali – have been in detention since December 2014.

They were convicted of murder and terrorism, and each was sentenced to life in prison as well as seven years in prison for illegal possession of firearms.

Responding to the verdict, Maulana Rashid Mahmood Soomro expressed his dissatisfaction with the judgment, stating that the punishment should have been death, and announced his intention to appeal the decision to the High Court.