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Journalism of Courage
Pakistan has sentenced five men, including a soldier, to hang for their role in an Al Qaeda-inspired assassination attempt on President Pervez Musharraf in late 2003, a military spokesman said on Friday.
Musharraf narrowly escaped when two suicide car bombers drove on a collision course into his motorcade on Christmas Day, 2003, in Rawalpindi, the garrison city adjoining Islamabad. Fifteen people were killed.
It was the second attempt on his life that month, and several soldiers, air force personnel and militants were arrested after the attacks.
Military spokesman Major-General Shaukat Sultan named the condemned men as trooper Arshad Mehmood, and civilians Zubair Ahmed, Rashid Qureshi, Ghulam Sarwar and Akhlaque Ahmed. The authorities have not disclosed when the executions will be carried out.
Under the same trial, another man was sentenced to life imprisonment while two more were given jail terms of 15 and 20 years, the spokesman said. —Reuters
