NEW DELHI, 1 November 2005 — An Indian court yesterday sentenced to death a Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist, Mohammed Arif alias Ashfaq, over an attack on New Delhi’s famous 17th Century Red Fort five years ago.
Prosecutors had said Ashfaq, convicted of “waging war” on India, was a member of the banned militant group that some analysts suspect of involvement in weekend bombings in New Delhi.
Two Ashfaq accomplices, Nazir Ahmed Qasid and his son Farooq Ahmed Qasid, found guilty of waging war against the state were awarded life imprisonment. Rehmana Yousuf Farouqi, Ashfaq’s Indian wife, found guilty of supporting the accused, was handed down a seven-year jail term.
On Dec. 22, 2000, Ashfaq and five other terrorists sneaked into Red Fort at around 2100 hours and opened indiscriminate fire, killing two soldiers of Rajputana Rifles and a civilian.
Three other militants Abu Shaad, Abu Bilal and Abu Haider, who had earlier entered the monument, were killed in separate encounters.
Convicting the accused, Additional Sessions Judge O.P. Saini said it had been “established beyond doubt” that conspiracy to attack the Red Fort was hatched at Farooq and Nazir’s house in Srinagar. Ashfaq had arrived here in 1999 along with Abu Shaad, Abu Bilal and Abu Haider.
“These facts speak unmistakably and loudly that these people conspired to wage war against the Government of India,” the judge said.
“The foreign national and his accomplices had entered the Indian territory with a view to subverting the functioning of the government and destabilizing the society,” he said.
In Delhi, Ashfaq was given shelter by Sadaqat at Gafoor Nagar in Okhla. Here, they jointly ran a computer center for a month before the attack.
Security in Delhi has been stepped up since Saturday’s blasts, claimed by a lesser-known Kashmiri group that analysts say is a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba.
