Pakistan sentences Taliban commander in absentia

QUETTA, Pakistan, Thursday (Reuters) - A Pakistani court has sentenced the Taliban's military chief to life imprisonment in absentia for trying to kill a member of parliament, a court official said on Thursday.

An anti-terrorism court in the southwestern town of Quetta handed down the sentence on Wednesday to Mullah Dadullah, as well as to two Pakistani supporters who were present in court, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Three other Afghans who, like Dadullah, are at large, received the same sentence, while a third Pakistani was acquitted, the official said.

Maulana Mohammad Khan Sherani, of Pakistan's pro-Taliban Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI) (Party of Islamic Scholars), escaped unhurt when a landmine was detonated by remote control near his car in the southwestern province of Baluchistan on Nov. 18, 2004.

JUI is part of Pakistan's pro-Taliban opposition Islamist alliance, but in Baluchistan it is allied with the ruling coalition and Sherani has been more conciliatory towards President Pervez Musharraf than most other party members.

Sherani's lawyer Kamran Murtaza said the charge against Dadullah was based on statements by the two Pakistanis convicted that they had set off the landmine on his orders.

Sherani himself did not accuse Dadullah or other Taliban members. Asked why he was attacked, he said on Wednesday: "Only those who did it can tell why they did it."

Pakistan has been a key ally in the U.S.-led war on terrorism since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, but it has often been accused by Afghan officials of failing to act against Taliban guerrillas operating from its territory.