Terming five Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) militants "merchants of death and destruction", a Delhi court on Thursday sentenced them to life imprisonment for indulging in terrorist activities and waging war against the country.
While sentencing convicts Noor Mohammad Tantre, Pervaiz Ahmed Mir, Faroz Ahmed Bhat and brothers Atiq-uz-Zama and Raees-uz-Zama, arrested by Delhi police in August 2003, Additional Session Judge R K Gauba also imposed a fine of Rs. 50,000 on each of them.
The court had convicted them on January 3.
"These foot soldiers of forces inimical to India and bent upon sabotaging the peace and tranquillity here, besides posing a serious threat to its unity, sovereignty and integrity, have to be neutralised.
"In order that they are suitably de-fanged and blunted so as to be of no further use to the enemy, it is imperative that these merchants of death and destruction are locked away for their remaining lives, which is the course permissible in the statutory prescriptions provided for a large number of offences committed by them," the court said in its seven-page order.