A Pakistani court yesterday indicted 10 Pakistani followers of an Al Qaeda-linked extremist group with the attack on a senior army commander which killed 11 people. Judge Feroz Ahmed Bhatti charged the leader and nine members of the Jundallah, or 'Army of God', with murder, conspiracy and carrying explosives, public prosecutor lawyer Maula Bux Bhatti said. | The prosecutor and the judge have the same surname. Is Bhatti a common name in Pakiland? Not that I have any issues with them jugging terrorists, mind you... |
The hearing was held in a makeshift courtroom inside Karachi's central prison for extra security. "The court read the charges before the accused persons one by one, who denied all the charges," Bhatti said.| "We din't dunnit. Nope. Nope. Not us, nosirree." |
Meanwhile, two top generals, who closely worked with General Pervez Musharraf after he seized power in a coup, will retire next month, government sources said. They will quit their positions on October 7 but it was not yet clear who would replace them. Both were chosen by Musharraf when he made a series of changes in the military hierarchy as he threw Pakistan's support behind the war on terrorism. He removed some generals who were thought to be sympathetic to the Taliban regime or opposed to American-led military operations that began in Afghanistan in October 2001 to oust the regime from power. |