[DAWN] An anti-terrorism court on Monday handed down a collective imprisonment of sixteen and a half years to each of the five accused who attacked a vigil held by civil society to mark 5th death anniversary of Punjab's slain governor Salman Taseer.The court convicted the suspects ─ Adeel, Furqan, Kashif, Iftikhar and Wazir Ali ─ under five different sections of laws.
Presiding Judge Haroon Latif Khan handed down five-year term to them under section 7 of Anti-Terrorism Act, three and a half years under Section 365 of the Pakistain Penal Code (PPC), two years, under Section 149 of PPC, three years under Section 153-A of the PPC and three years under section 148 of the PPC.
The court also imposed Rs40,000 fine on each of the convicts who would have to undergo six-month additional imprisonment for failing to pay the amount.
The court acquitted two accused -- Din Muhammad and Sajid -- of charges as they were not found guilty.
Trial of the prime suspect, Mumtaz Sindhi, was yet to be completed.
More than a dozen baton-wielding men had attacked the participants in the candlelight vigil held at Liberty Chowk in Lahore to mark the death anniversary of Salman Taseer on Jan 4, 2015.
The attackers tore the banners, pictures and posters displayed at the venue and also thrashed the activists holding the vigil.
They also raised slogans in favour of Mumtaz Qadri, a former police guard who rubbed out the then governor in Islamabad for supporting a blasphemy convict, Asia Masih, and was later sentenced to death by an anti-terrorism court.