ATC convicts two facilitators of 2024 attack on Chinese nationals near Karachi airport

ATC convicts two facilitators of 2024 attack on Chinese nationals near Karachi airport

KARACHI: An anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Monday sentenced a bank officer and a trader of total 10 years and seven years in prison, respectively, for facilitating a terrorist attack targeting Chinese nationals near Karachi airport. The court found trader Saeed Ali and bank officer Bilal guilty of facilitating and arranging funds through a private bank in Hub, Balochistan, to purchase a vehicle that was used in the October 2024 deadly attack on a Chinese convoy that claimed the lives of two foreigners and one Pakistani national. The ATC-V Judge, who conducted the trial at the judicial complex inside the Karachi central prison, sentenced accused Bilal to 10- and three-year imprisonment, while Saeed was sentenced to seven- and two-year imprisonment. The court ruled that all the sentences will run concurrently. During the trial, the convicts denied the allegations, while Saeed deposed that he had no link with the outlawed Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) or any other such organisation. Convict Bilal also denied his involvement and claimed that he was performing his duty at the bank and he had no knowledge about the suicide bomber’s purpose of the transaction and alleged that he was implicated in this case as the suicide bomber was his university’s fellow. According to the prosecution, a vehicle was purchased for Rs7.1 million from a showroom and convicts Saeed and Bilal facilitated the transaction. The vehicle was later fitted with explosives and used in the bombing, it added. A case was registered by the Counter Terrorism Department under Sections 11-F (membership, support and meetings relating to a proscribed organisation) 11-N (punishment for fund-raising and using money or other property for the purposes of terrorism) and 21-I (aid and abetment) of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997. Published in Dawn, September 15th, 2026