ISLAMABAD — Military courts have sentenced at least three Pakistan air force service men to prison terms ranging from two to nine years for alleged links to an outlawed militant group, relatives of the men said yesterday.
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The trials were not announced, but relatives said they had taken place on two southern air force bases between October and December of last year. Military trials in Pakistan are often shrouded in secrecy, and air force spokesman Air Commodore Sarfraz Ahmad would not confirm the court martials. Aslam Khattak, a former air force chief warrant officer and the father of one of the defendants, Nasruminallah Khattak, said the three airmen were charged with giving donations to the banned Sunni extremist group Jaish e-Mohammed, and of receiving small-arms training at the group's camp in Balakot, in northwestern Pakistan. He said his son was innocent.
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The younger Khattak, 18, was sentenced to two years in prison, as was Saeed Alam, 19. Another young airman, Munir Ahmed, was given a nine-year sentence, said Abdus Samad, Ahmed's brother. President Gen. Pervez Musharraf outlawed Jaishe Mohammed in 2001 as part of efforts to end extremism. The three young airmen whose cases came to light yesterday were not apparently involved in any of the attempts on Gen Musharraf's life. |