Bengaluru, Sep 17 (DHNS): A National Investigation Agency (NIA) Special Court here on Friday awarded five-year rigorous imprisonment to 13 members of the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and Harkat-ul-Jihad-E-Islami (HuJi) who had plotted to kill Hindu leaders and a journalist in Karnataka, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.

The 13, who were convicted on Thursday, were sentenced under the sections of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and Indian Penal Code (IPC). This apart, four convicts were sentenced under the Arms Act and one of them under the Official Secrets Act.

The convicts Shoaib Ahmed Mirza, Abdul Hakeem Jamadar, Riyaz Ahmed Byahatti, Mohammed Akram, Ubedullah Bahadur, Wahid Hussain Kanakyanavar, Dr Zafar Iqbal Sholapur, Mohammad Sadiq Lashkar, Mehboob Bagalkote, Obaid-ur-Rehman, Dr Nayeem Siddique, Dr Imran Ahmed and Syed Tanzim Ahmed were brought to the court during pronouncement of the quantum of punishment.

The 13 men had filed applications pleading guilty on September 1, 2016. The NIA court judge B Muralidhara Pai pronounced the sentence and said the sentence of imprisonment in respect of all the offences would run concurrently. The court also slapped a fine of Rs 31,000 each on all the convicts. Shoaib Ahmed Mirza, Abdul Hakeem Jamadar, Mohammed Akram and Ubedullah Bahadur were sentenced under the Arms Act. Ubedullah Bahadur was also sentenced for the offence under the sections of the Official Secrets Act.

The convicts looked relieved after the pronouncement of the sentence and one of them requested the judge to direct the prison authorities to provide them medical facilities. The judge said that he will include the request in the order. The judge also ordered that the passports of the convicts, five of them, will be impounded under section 51 of UAPA Act till the completion of their respective terms of sentences.

The NIA charge sheet stated that subsequent to the plot hatched by the members of LeT and HuJi in Saudi Arabia, the convicts were chosen for the job of assassinating certain religious leaders and their supporters. The conspiracy was also hatched in Riyadh and Dammam in Saudi Arabia. Two of the convicts, Abdul Hakeem Jamadar and Dr Zafar Iqbal Sholapur had gone to Pakistan through Iran in 2011 with an intention to reach Afghanistan to join the fight against the US and the NATO forces.

They met Abdul Rehaman alias Farhatullah Ghori, a terrorist wanted in the Akshardham temple attack case in Gujarat, at Karachi in Pakistan. Ghori has also been named an accused by the NIA in this case. The duo was motivated by Ghori and ISI and LeT operatives to return to India for this specific mission to target religious leaders.