A Karachi anti-terrorist court sentenced to death two men accused of attacking a group of Sunni religious teachers in the city in November last year. Convicts Tanweer Abbas and Saleem Jaffery were present when the verdict was announced. The third accused, Mohammed Raza, is absconding. Two religious scholars belonging to the Binnori Town mosque in Karachi, a Sunni stronghold, were killed while their companions were injured when the van that they were riding in was attacked on November 2, 1997.

The death of the two scholars, Maulana Habibullah Mukhtar and Mufti Abdul Sami, brought nation-wide protests soon after. In a related development, an anti-terrorist Court in Islamabad sentenced to death two Sunni militants who were accused of killing four Iranian technicians in anambush in Rawalpindi in November 1997.

Convicts M Asif and M Yaqub were present in the court when the judge handed down his verdict. The sentences awarded on Saturday are indicative of the government's resolve to try and solve on-going sectarian strife in the country. Sharif said a year back that one of the reasons why his government could not contain the problem was that the trials of accused persons were being delayed unnecessarily. This prompted him to introduce the Anti-Terrorism Act in parliament last August under which sweeping powers were awarded to the law enforcing agencies.