ALLAHABAD: A special court here on Tuesday convicted four out of the five accused in the 2005 Ayodhya terror attack case. Four accused — Irrfan, Mohammad Shakeel, Mohammad Naseem, Asif Iqbal alias Farookh — were sentenced to life imprisonment.

Special judge Dinesh Chand acquitted Mohamad Aziz, the fifth accused in the case.

The judge also imposed a penalty of Rs 2,40,000 which is to be shared equally among the four accused. The case was heard in Naini Central Jail where the five accused were imprisoned.

Terrorists had attacked the Ram Janmbhoomi Babri Masjid complex on July 2, 2005. The attack was foiled by security officials, who killed several attackers in a 1-hour long battle.

As many as seven people were killed in the attack, including five alleged Jaish-e-Muhammed terrorists. Seven CRPF jawans were also injured in the attack.

UP Police arrested five people in the case. Four of them were from Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir and one was from Saharanpur district of Uttar Pradesh.

A total of 63 prosecution witnesses were examined by the court through video conferencing from Naini jail.

