A Pakistani court has sentenced three Islamic militants to death after finding them guilty of killing four women as they prayed at a church near the capital in 2003, a police official said on Friday.
The three men were captured shortly after the August 9, 2003 , attack on the grounds of a Presbyterian hospital in Taxila, a small town about 40 km northwest of here.
The women were all nurses at a hospital adjacent to the church. They died as they were leaving the church when attackers hurled grenades at the congregation. One assailant also died in the assault.
A police official in Taxila, Jan Mohammed, told AP by phone that the judge ordered three other defendants free for lack of evidence.
The Taxila hospital is supported by the Presbyterian Church USA and the Presbyterian Church of Pakistan. It was founded in 1922 and treats mostly poor Muslims, specializing in eye diseases.
The attack was one of several against foreigners and minority Christians in the months following President General Pervez Musharraf's decision to ally himself with the United States in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks in America .