New Delhi: Four suspected Lashkar-e-Toiba militants, who had planned to trigger explosions during Republic Day celebrations in the capital in 2002, were today handed out ten year's rigorous imprisonment by a court here.

Bilal Ahmed Mir, Mohd Afzal Kumhar, Adil Nazir Keen and Ansar Ahmed, all belonging to Anantnag in Jammu and Kashmir, were held guilty by Special POTA judge Additional Sessions Judge Ravinder Kaur under various provisions of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA), the IPC and that of the Explosives Substances Act. "It has been proven that all the accused are guilty of terrorist act as they were possessing such a huge quantity of explosives, besides Rs 34 lakh in cash," the court said, while also imposing a penalty of Rs 1.25 lakh each on them.

According to prosecution, the four convicts, who planned to set off blasts using RDX at the Republic Day parade and its rehearsals, were nabbed by the crime branch from a private hostel at Kotla Mubarakpur here on January 14 following an information from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the USA. Ove five kilograms of RDX, detonators and Rs 34 lakh in cash, sent to them from a Dubai-based hawala operator, were seized from them, the prosecution alleged.

The court, however, refused to accept the claim that the four accused were members of banned terrorist outfit -- LeT saying that there was nothing on record which could link them to the organisation. It convicted them under sections 121A and 122 of the IPC for conspiring to commit offences against the state and collecting arms and ammunition to wage war against the Government of India.

Source : PTI