BOMBAY, 22 September 2006 — An anti-terror court hearing the 1993 Bombay serial blasts case yesterday found Pervez Nazir Ahmed Shaikh guilty of conspiracy to kill, planting bombs, and causing explosions in the Katha Bazaar and at the Hotel Sea Rock that killed four people.
Shaikh, a key aide of the main accused Tiger Memon, was also found guilty of handling arms and ammunitions, committing terrorist acts, aiding and abetting murder, attempted murder, causing hurt, damaging public property, and causing explosions to endanger life and property under the Special Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (TADA) act and the Explosive Substances act.
Judge P.D. Kode also found Shaikh guilty of loading explosives in several vehicles that exploded at various places on the day of the blasts, which killed 257 people and injured 713. The court, however, acquitted him of the charges of undergoing arms training and participating in transporting weapons from Jogeshwari to Musafir Khana in central Bombay.
The charge sheet mentioned that Shaikh had planted a bag containing explosives in a room at the Hotel Sea Rock. Fortunately, no one was killed or injured in the explosion, although there the building was severely damaged said to cost 90 million Indian rupees. According to lawyers, Shaikh could face anything from a five-year prison sentence to death.
Meanwhile anti-terror police yesterday announced that they are close to identifying those responsible for the July 11 Bombay serial blasts that killed about 200 people. “We are investigating in the right directions and soon we will be able to come out with the facts,” K.P. Raghuvanshi, the city’s anti-terrorism squad chief, told Reuters.
But Raghuvanshi declined to comment on a report on Indian television channel CNN-IBN that the attack had been planned and funded by Al-Qaeda.
The channel, quoting government sources, said that at least 50 people were involved in the bombings and some of the main accused had trained in an Al-Qaeda camp with Mohammed Atta, leader of the hijacked plane attacks on New York’s World Trade Center in 2001.
P.S. Pasricha, police chief of the Maharashtra state, said the CNN-IBN report was “completely untrue.” A Home Ministry official would say only that an announcement was likely in “three-four days.” In the immediate aftermath of the attack, Indian security officials blamed local Muslims with links to Pakistan, and named Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba as a prime suspect.
—Additional input from Reuters
