BOMBAY, 19 September 2006 — The special anti-terror court yesterday convicted two men for killing 10 people in a bombing outside a Bombay cinema theater 13 years ago when 257 were killed in India’s worst terrorist attack.

Pronouncing another verdict in the 1993 Bombay blasts case, the court pronounced Asghar Yusuf Mukadam alias Munna accused No. 10 and Shahnawaz Qureshi, accused No. 29, guilty for their involvement in planting bombs at the cinema in Dadar in which 10 people were killed and 39 were injured.

Mukadam and Qureshi parked a van packed with explosives outside the cinema set to go off during a two-hour citywide blitz in 1993.

Mukadam, the business manager of Tiger Memon — the main accused in the serial blasts, was held guilty on 12 charges.

“No convincing evidence had been found against the accused No. 10 (Mukadam) on two counts of participating with co-conspirators in the meetings where plans were chalked out for committing terrorist acts and in the landing and transportation of arms smuggled into the country for the commission of terrorist acts,” Special Judge P.D. Kode said while pronouncing him guilty.

Qureshi is the first accused to be found guilty of having received arms training in Pakistan.

Qureshi, who took an oath of silence and vowed to die before carrying out the attack, traveled to Pakistan via Dubai to learn how to use rocket launchers, explosives, grenades and guns.

The prosecution said the training was supervised and controlled by “Pakistani agents” who were working in concert with the alleged gangster kingpin of the operation, Dawood Ibrahim.

He was also guilty of landing RDX at Shekhadi in Raigad district, filling RDX in vehicles and participating in the meeting where the conspiracy was hatched, in addition to the 12 charges against him.

The statements of both accused would be recorded today in the court and the final verdict would be served after hearing the arguments from both the prosecution and the defense lawyers, the special judge said.

“This is the first judicial finding that has proved that some elements from Pakistan had a role in the 1993 Bombay blasts,” Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam told reporters.

Asked whether there was any direct role of the Pakistan government or the Pakistan’s Inter-Service-Intelligence in the tragic blasts, Nikam said, “I would not like to make any comment on that. But the judgment showed that the prosecution’s charges of some accused having received arms training in Pakistan have been upheld.”

The charge sheet points out that nearly a dozen accused had gone to Pakistan via Dubai to attend training camps.

“The entire operation was handled by Tiger Memon and Dawood Ibrahim, two of the main accused. The accused were received at the Dubai airport by Memon and Taher Taklya (another absconding accused). They were trained in Pakistan and sent back to Dubai,” according to the charge sheet.

“The trips of the accused to Islamabad were arranged in collusion with Pakistani agents and no immigration formalities were observed at the Islamabad airport,” the charge sheet notes.

Also, all the “accused trainees” have ‘exclusively traveled’ by Pakistan International Airlines from Dubai to Islamabad, it said.

Last week, the judge pronounced Mohammad Shoaib Ghansar, Mukadam’s cousin, guilty of the Zaveri Bazaar blasts that killed 17 people and injured 57.

If convicted under various sections of the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA), the Indian Penal Code and the Explosives Act, all three could face death or life imprisonment.

The fate of another accused, Abdul Gani Ismail Turk will be decided Tuesday, said Nikam. Turk had allegedly parked a jeep at the Century Bazar in Worli that led to the deadliest of the serial blasts, killing 113 people and injuring 227.

The court is also likely to decide today on the fate of the accused in the Mahim causeway grenade hurling in which three people were killed and seven injured.

The special judge last week found the Memon brothers — Tiger, Yusuf, Essa and Yakub — and Yakub’s sister-in-law, Rabina, guilty under anti-terror laws while acquitting three others of the family.

They were the first eight in the list of 123 accused in the March 12, 1993 blasts that killed 257 and injured over 700.