Seven-year trial ends with suspects guilty of murder and criminal conspiracy over attacks in which 188 people died
Indian commuters walk past the site of the explosion at Mahim railway station in Mumbai in July 2006. Photograph: Indranil Mukherjee/AFP/Getty Images
An Indian court has convicted 12 people over the bombings of seven Mumbai commuter trains that killed 188 people and wounded 800 others in July 2006.
The accused were found guilty of murder and criminal conspiracy charges and will be sentenced on Monday. They could face the death penalty.
The trial in Mumbai lasted more than seven years. Prosecutors say the conspiracy was hatched by Pakistan’s Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and carried out by Lashkar-e-Tayyaba operatives with help from the Students’ Islamic Movement of India, a banned militant organisation.
The Lashkar-e-Tayyaba is a Pakistan-based Islamist militant group. Pakistan has denied the Indian claims.
The men will be sentenced on Monday, bringing to an end a trial that lasted nine years, involved more than 200 witnesses, and depositions that ran into thousands of pages.
Prosecution lawyer Raja Thakare said he wanted "the strictest possible punishment" for those convicted.
"Whatever sentence the judge hands out, it should be able to satisfy the public at large," he said.
Lawyer Shahid Nadeem, who represented all 13 defendants in the case, said the prosecution had failed to provide evidence that Abdul Wahid Shaikh, who was acquitted, had played any role in the blasts.
He said he would appeal against the convictions of the other 12.
"We are not satisfied with the judgement and will approach High Court against the convictions," he said.
In all, police charged 30 people over the bombings, including 13 Pakistani nationals, who along with four Indian suspects have yet to be arrested.
Blasts ripped through Mumbai commuter trains during the evening rush hour on July 11, 2006.
The bombs were packed into pressure cookers then placed in bags and hidden under newspapers and umbrellas in the trains.
Prosecutors said the devices were assembled in Mumbai and deliberately placed in first-class coaches to target the city's wealthy Gujarati community.
They said the bombings were intended as revenge for the riots in the western state of Gujarat in 2002, which left some 2,000 people dead, most of them Muslims.
Prosecutors accused Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba of being behind the 2006 attacks, although a little known outfit called the Lashkar-e-Qahhar claimed responsibility.
The accused were represented by Shahid Azmi, a Muslim rights activist and lawyer, who was mysteriously killed by unidentified gunmen in 2010.
The attacks prompted India to freeze peace talks with Pakistan for several months.
Dialogue between the nuclear-armed South Asian nations resumed later that year, but were interrupted again in 2008 after a militant attack on Mumbai that left 166 people dead. - Reuters/AFP
No comments:
Post a Comment