Two militants sentenced to death

Duo found guilty in 2021 suicide attack on bus carrying Chinese engineers

APakistani court convicted and sentenced to death two militants for killing 13 people in a suicide attack last year in the country’s northwest, police said on Monday.

Senior police officer Zeeshan

Asghar told reporters in the garrison city of Abbottabad that Judge Sajjad Ahmed Jan announced the verdict in the high security prison on Friday, after months of trial.

He said the court awarded 13 death sentences to Mohammad Hussain and Mohammad Ayaz for killing nine Chinese engineers, two paramilitary troops and two other locala, plus a 10- year prison term for each of the 32 people wounded in the attack. The judge also imposed heavy fines.

Hussain and Ayaz were found guilty of orchestrating the July 14, 2021 suicide attack on a bus on a mountainous road in the Kohistan region. The bus was carrying Chinese engineers working on the Dasu dam project in the region.

Nine Chinese were killed and 27 wounded in the attack as the blast toppled the bus a deep ravine.

Two Pakistani troops escorting the Chinese and two others were also killed.