Court Sentences 4 Al-Qaida Terrorists To 7 Rigorous years In Jail

A Delhi court on Tuesday sentenced seven-year jail term to four operatives of Al-Qaida in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), in a conspiracy of terror activities in the country.

The court found that the AQIS members plotted to commit terrorist acts across the country and recruited people for the extremist organisation.

The four convicts are Maulana Mohd Abdul Rehman Kasmi, Mohd Asif, Zafar Masood, and Abdul Sami.
The ordered was passed by a special judge Sanjay Khanagwal.

The petitioner counsel, Akram Khan stated that the convicts have already spent around seven years and three months behind the bars and that period will be considered part of the punishment.

The offences proved by the prosecution carries a maximum punishment of life imprisonment.
The judge on Friday convicted the four and acquitted two alleged AQIS operatives, Syed Mohd Zishan Ali and Sabeel Ahmed, in the case.

The judge accepted the accused’s submissions, represented by advocate M S Khan and advocate Qausar Khan, that the prosecution had failed to prove its case against them.

The accused were charged by the court in 2017, while another accused, Syed Anzar Shah, was discharged from the case.

The Special Cell of the Delhi Police claimed that Kasmi ran a madrassa in Uttar Pradesh with several students enrolled and was attempting to radicalise them for terrorist activities.
It was also claimed that Masood was spreading the terror agenda of AQIS among the youths and attempting to entice them to join the terror organisation.

While Asif was apprehended in Seelampur, north east Delhi, Kasmi was apprehended in the Jagatpur area of Cuttack, Odisha, police had said.

Kasmi was suspected of having international connections in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Dubai, according to the police.

It was also alleged that the other co-accused were also attempting to radicalise youths and spread AQIS’s terror agenda in India.