Indian court sentences 13 persons to life for terror

Special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court has sentenced 13 persons to life on charges of recruiting youths in southern Indian state of Kerala for "terror training" in disputed Kashmir, Indian media reported on Saturday. The convicted also include suspected Lashkar-e-Toiba militant Tadiyantavide Nazir, the reports said, adding, all 13 convicts have to pay a fine of Rs 50, 000 each. Among the thirteen convicts, four of the recruits had already been killed in an encounter in disputed Kashmir's Kupwara region in a gunfight with Indian troops, reports noted, stating further, one of their convicted accomplice fled from Kupwara and was later arrested in southern state of Kerala later. The NIA took the case in 2009 and had chargesheeted 24 people, including the four deceased. Out of these, two accused, including Pakistani national Wali alias Abu Rehan, are absconding. Earlier the NIA investigations has proven that the accused have taken motivational classes at in in Kerala and southern city of Hyderabad to prepare recruits for "waging jihad and provided training for carrying out terror attacks," the reports added.