A city court on Thursday awarded 10 years' rigorous imprisonment to four Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militants for planning terror attacks on the eve of Republic Day celebrations in the capital in 2002.Additional Sessions Judge Ravinder Kaur held Mohammed Afzal Kunhar, Adil Nazir, Bilal Ahmed Mir and Ansar Ahmed Dar, all hailing from Jammu and Kashmir, guilty under various provisions of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA).
According to the prosecution, the four militants wanted to avenge the death of five terrorists in police firing during the attack on parliament in 2001. The court also held that the charges of planning to wage a war against the nation and possession of explosives, among others, were proved against them, and slapped a fine of Rs 125,000 on each of them.
According to the prosecution, the four convicts were arrested on January 14, 2002 from Kotla Mubarakpur area in south Delhi. The crime branch of the Delhi Police had recovered over five kg of RDX, detonators and Rs 3.5 million in cash from them. On sustained interrogation, they had divulged their plans to explode bombs on the eve of the Republic Day in the capital.