Hyderabad blasts: 'Rarest of the rare' case says judge, gives death sentence to 5 IM operatives

Five key operatives of Indian Mujahideen, including the banned terror outfit's co-founder Yasin Bhatkal and a Pakistani national, were awarded death penalty on Sunday by a Special NIA Court here in the February 2013 Hyderabad bomb blasts which claimed 18 lives.
●    Pronouncing the sentence, Judge T Srinivasa Rao described the case as the "rarest of the rare". This is the first case where operatives of the home-grown group have been convicted in a terror case.
●    NIA Special Public Prosecutor K Surender said the court, after going through their evidence, found that the case is based on facts.
●    The court, after hearing the arguments of prosecution and defence counsels on sentencing, awarded death penalty to the convicts and also varying jail terms on different counts including, 
●    On December 13, the court had convicted the five operatives -- IM co-founder Mohd Ahmed Sidibapa alias Yasin Bhatkal, Pakistani national Zia-ur-Rahman alias Waqas, Asadullah Akhtar alias Haddi, Tahaseen Akhtar alias Monu and Ajaz Shaikh -- who are at present in judicial custody and lodged in the Cherlapally Central Prison here.
●    The IM convicts said they will go for an appeal, according to the NIA counsel.