MULTAN, Sept 20 1998: Four people were killed and 22 were injured when four terrorists opened fire on a religious
gathering in a Kot Addu village, 95 km southeast of Multan, on Sunday afternoon.
Ten out of the 22 injured were removed to the local Nishtar Hospital in critical condition.
Reports reaching here said that more than 200 people were present in the Majlis-i-Aza at Fazal Sarai village when four people armed with Klashnikovs reached there on two motorcycles and opened indiscriminate fire, killing three people on the spot. They were identified as Manzoor Husain, Ali Raza and Zulfikar Ali. Later, Khuda Bakhsh died at the Nishtar Hospital.
All the injured were taken to the Tehsil Headquarters Hospital, Kot Addu, where emergency was declared. Hundreds of people thronged the hospital to donate blood to the injured. Later, 10 of the injured were shifted to the Nishtar Hospital.
The Multan administration has set-up an emergency blood bank at the Nishtar, besides deploying a heavy police contingent for the security of the injured people. The administrations of Multan and Muzaffargarh districts have, meanwhile, appealed to the Shias to be peaceful and not to take law in their hands.
Muzaffargarh SP Dr Jamil told Dawn that it might be a reaction to the assassination of SSP leader Allama Shoaib Nadeem and others in Islamabad.
Some people said the organizers had already informed the administration about the Majlis-i-Aza, but no police guards were deployed. However, the administration denied the charge, and said no body had approached it.
Death sentence of convicts in Imambargah firing case confirmedMULTAN Sep 19, 2001: A division bench of Lahore High Court, Multan on Wednesday dismissed the appeal of two terrorists involved in Kot Addu Imambargah firing case and confirmed death sentence awarded to them by an Anti-Terrorist Court (ATC), DG Khan.
On September 20, 1998, the seven accused -- Malik Muhammad Ishaq, Riaz Hussain and five others -- resorted to firing at Imambargah in Kot Addu Tehsil, Muzaffargarh district. As a result, five people --Zulfiqar, Elahi Bukhsh, Khuda Bukhsh and Allah Divaya -- killed besides causing injuries to around 10 others.
Judge Anti-Terrorism Court BA Fakhri started the trial on November 5, 1998. The ATC awarded death sentence to Malik Ishaq and Riaz Hussain on five counts and rests of the accused were acquitted on April 6, 1999 due to lack of evidence.
The convicts filed appeal, which was dismissed by a division bench, comprising Justice Asif Saeed Khosa and Justice Muhammad Farrukh Mahmud, upholding the ATC verdict on Wednesday.
According to the sentence awarded by the trial court, each of the convicts were directed to pay Rs 1 million to the legal heirs of all the deceased. They were also directed to pay Rs 50,000 compensation each to all the injured people. A fine of Rs 1.6 million was imposed on each of them. Moreover, they were also sentenced to undergo 70-year rigorous imprisonment each.