A Pakistani court on Saturday convicted 51 supporters of former prime minister Imran Khan for five years of rigorous imprisonment on two counts for their involvement in attacking key military installations last year.
In May last year, Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) supporters had allegedly attacked several military installations, including the army headquarters in Rawalpindi and the ISI building in Faisalabad, to vent their anger against the arrest of their party founder in a corruption case.
This is the first conviction in the cases registered against the PTI leaders, workers and supporters in connection with the May 9 riots in the country, mostly in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces.
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The convicts include PTI lawmaker Kaleemullah Khan.
The anti-terrorism court (ATC), Gujranwala handed down a year jail term to 51 supporters of PTI on two counts for attacking the Gujranwala Cantonment (some 80 km from Lahore), law enforcement agencies personnel and torching police vehicles.
According to a court official, the court also imposed a fine of PKR 10,000 on each of them.
ATC Judge Natasha Naseem held the proceedings in the Central Jail, Gujranwala amid high security outside the jail and announced the verdict. The proceedings of the cases against the convict remained in-camera.
In the May 9 violence in Gujranwala, one PTI worker was killed and scores of PTI workers and policemen were injured.
The PTI claims that over 10,000 of its leaders and workers, and supporters of Imran Khan have been languishing in different jails of Punjab and KP provinces since May last and they are not provided a fair chance to defend themselves against phoney charges.
Imran Khan, himself, has been in jail since August last year and just before the February 8 polls, he was sentenced to a 31-year jail term in three different cases. In total, he is facing over 200 cases.