Indian court convicts six over deadly Mumbai blasts

MUMBAI: An Indian court yesterday convicted six men over serial bomb blasts in the commercial capital Mumbai more than two decades ago that killed hundreds, the nation’s deadliest attack.

The men were convicted of involvement in a series of coordinated bomb attacks that targeted the Mumbai stock exchange, the headquarters of the state airline and a popular shopping centre in March 1993, killing 257 people and injuring hundreds more.

The attacks were believed to have been staged by Mumbai’s Muslim- dominated underworld in retaliation for anti-Muslim violence that had killed more than 1,000 people a few months earlier.

A specially designated court in Mumbai yesterday convicted the six for a range of offenses.

Abu Salem, one of the key figures in the attacks, was found guilty of transporting weapons from Gujarat to Mumbai ahead of the blasts. But Judge GA Sanap acquitted all six on the most serious charge of waging war against the nation.

One other defendant Abdul Qayyam was acquitted of all charges.

They are latest convictions in a long-running case that at its outset involved 189 defendants.

One of the most high profile, Yakub Memon, was executed in 2015 — a decade after he was convicted under controversial anti-terror legislation that is no longer on the statute books.

The attack also embroiled Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt, who served time for buying weapons from gangsters accused of orchestrating the bombings before walking free last year.