Two former Pakistani diplomats were Thursday sentenced to one year in prison by an anti-terror court for issuing passports to three Indian
citizens, including a man linked to the 1993 serial bomb attacks in Mumbai, who had furnished fake documents' for the purpose.
Judge Wamiq Javed of the anti-terrorism court
sentenced Ghulam Rasool Balouch, Pakistan's former Consul General in Houston, US, to rigorous imprisonment for one year and imposed a fine of Rs 15,000 on him.
The court also sentenced former Assistant Consul General Mohammad Naeem to rigorous imprisonment for a year and fined him Rs 5,000.
The two officials were convicted for issuing over 300 passports to people who provided fake or incomplete documents.
Pakistani authorities registered a case against them two years ago after being alerted by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation about lapses in the issuance of passports by the
consulate in Houston.
The National Accountability Bureau, Pakistan's anti-corruption agency, filed a case against the two officials in the anti-terrorism court, stating that they and a travel agent named Imran Lalpuri were involved in issuing passports to Indian nationals Aziz Moosa, Saleem Ali and Abdul Sadiq.
Aziz Moosa was issued a Pakistani passport in the name of Syed Nazar Ali.
An American passport bearing the name Syed Nazar Ali was found after the 1993 bomb blasts in Mumbai and investigations revealed the man was actually an Indian national named Aziz Moosa.
Subsequent investigations showed that several
passports had been issued by the Pakistani consulate in Houston, including one to Moosa.
A series of 13 bomb blasts in Mumbai on March 12, 1993 killed 257 people and injured hundreds.
The attacks were coordinated by underworld mob boss Dawood Ibrahim with help from Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency.