A Pakistani military court sentenced 25 civilians to two to ten years of “rigorous imprisonment” in relation to 2023 attacks on military installations, the military’s media wing announced on Saturday.
Supporters of imprisoned former prime minister Imran Khan are worried that military courts will be given more authority in cases involving the 72-year-old, who is accused of inciting attacks against the armed forces, among other charges. This decision highlights their concerns.
In protest of the former premier’s arrest by paramilitary troops, thousands of Khan supporters stormed military installations and set fire to a general’s home on May 9, 2023. The violence claimed at least eight lives.
The military’s Inter-Services Public Relations office described the sentences imposed on Saturday as an “important milestone in the dispensation of justice to the nation.”
“It is also a stark reminder to all those who are exploited by the vested interests and fall prey to their political propaganda and intoxicating lies to never take the law into their own hands,” it said in a statement.
Justice would only be fully served “once the mastermind and planners… are punished as per the Constitution and laws of the land,” according to the military, although other people accused of the violence were being tried in anti-terrorism courts.
An anti-terrorism court charged Khan with inciting attacks against the military just days before the decision. The military is investigating Faiz Hamid, a general in the army who served as his spy chief, on the same charges.
The verdicts in the nearly 85 Khan supporters’ completed trials on charges of attacking army installations were made public by Pakistan’s Supreme Court last week, but they were contingent on the resolution of appeals against the military courts’ jurisdiction over civilians.
Last year, the court gave military courts temporary permission to try civilians.
