Yusuf Memon

The 1993 Bombay bombings was a series of 12 terrorist bombings that took place primarily in Hindu majority areas in Bombay (now Mumbai), Maharashtra, on 12 March 1993. The single-day attacks resulted in 257 fatalities and 1,400 injuries. The attacks were coordinated by Dawood Ibrahim, leader of the Mumbai-based international organised crime syndicate D-Company.

For several years, there was confusion about whether there was 12 or 13 blasts. This was because Sharad Pawar, then-chief minister of Maharashtra, stated on television that there had been 13 blasts. He later revealed that he had lied on purpose and that there had been only 12 blasts, none of them in Muslim-dominated areas; he also confessed that he had attempted to mislead the public into believing that the blasts could have been the work of the LTTE, a Sri Lankan militant organization, when in fact intelligence reports had already confirmed Mumbai's underworld (D-Company) was the perpetrator of the serial blasts.

On 21 March 2013, the Supreme Court of India, after 20 years of judicial proceedings, upheld the death sentence against suspected ringleader Yakub while commuting the death sentences of 10 others to life imprisonment. Two main suspects in the case, Ibrahim and Tiger, have not been arrested or tried. After India's three-judge Supreme Court bench rejected his curative petition, saying the grounds he raised did not fall within the principles laid down by the court in 2002, Yakub was executed by the Maharashtra government on 30 July 2015.

Background

In December 1992 and January 1993, there was widespread rioting throughout the nation following the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, with some of the most notable riots occurring in Mumbai. Five years after the December–January riots, the Srikrishna Commission report found that 900 individuals had died and over 2,000 had been injured.

Confession of Gul Mohammed

On 9 March 1993, three days before the bombings took place, a small-time criminal from the Bombay slum of Behrampada named Gul Noor Mohammad Sheikh (aka "Gullu") was detained at the Nag Pada police station. Gullu was one of the 19 men handpicked for weapons training by Tiger Memon, a silver smuggler whose office was burnt in the riots. Tiger became chief mastermind of the bombings and for training in the use of guns and bomb-making.The man who knew too much
– The Telegraph, 1 October 2006. Retrieved 21 August 2009
Archived
4 September 2009.

Gullu had been sent to Pakistan via Dubai on 19 February 1993 and upon completion of his training returned to Mumbai on 4 March. In his absence, the police detained Gullu's brothers to encourage him to surrender, which he did. He confessed to his role in the riots, his training in Pakistan, and a conspiracy underway to bomb major locations around the city, including the Bombay Stock Exchange, Sahar International Airport and the Shiv. However, his conspiracy claim was dismissed by the police as a "mere bluff". Gullu's arrest advanced the date of the bombings which had originally been planned to coincide with the Shiv Jayanti celebrations in April 1993.

The bombings

At 13:30 hours on 12 March 1993, a powerful car bomb exploded in the basement of the Bombay Stock Exchange building. The 28-storey office building was severely damaged and many nearby office buildings also suffered damage. Reports indicate that 50 were killed by this explosion. About 30 minutes later, another car bomb exploded in front of the Mandvi branch of Corporation Bank. From 13:30 hours to 15:40 hours a total of 12 bombs exploded throughout Mumbai. Most of the bombs were car bombs but some were in scooters.

Three hotels – the Hotel Sea Rock, Hotel Juhu Centaur, and Hotel Airport Centaur – were targeted by suitcase bombs left in rooms booked by the perpetrators. Banks, the regional passport office, the Air India Building, and a major shopping complex were also hit. Bombs exploded at Zaveri Bazaar and opposite it, a jeep-bomb exploded at the Century Bazaar.Century Bazaar bomb: Accused was a driver
– ''The Times of India'', 18 September 2006 Grenades were thrown at Sahar International Airport and at Fishermen's Colony, apparently targeting certain citizens at the latter.1993 Mumbai blasts case verdicts
– Rediff news, 1 August 2007 A double-decker bus was very badly damaged in the deadliest explosion, with as many as 90 people killed.

The locations attacked were:

* Fisherman's Colony in Mahim causeway
* Zaveri Bazaar Fort
* Plaza Cinema, Dadar
* Century Bazaar
* Katha Bazaar
* Hotel Sea Rock
* Terminal at Sahar Airport (now Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport SIA
* Air India Building
* Hotel Juhu Centaur
* Worli
* Bombay Stock Exchange Building FortMumbai Seeks Link to Stolen Car In Fatal Blast at Stock Exchange
– 15 March 1993, The New York Times
* Passport OfficeThe Mumbai 1993 serial bombings
– Indian Express, 11 November 2005. Retrieved 21 August 2009
Archived
4 September 2009.

Political deception

In 1997, the then Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Sharad Pawar, admitted that he had "deliberately misled" people following the 1993 Mumbai bombings by saying there were "13 and not 12" explosions and had added the name of a Muslim-dominated locality to show that people from both communities had been affected. He attempted to justify this deception by claiming that it was a move to prevent communal riots by falsely portraying that both Hindu and Muslim communities in the city had been affected adversely. He also admitted to lying about evidence recovered and misleading people into believing that it pointed to the Tamil Tigers as possible suspects.

Aftermath

The official number of fatalities was 257 with 1,400 others injured (some sources reported that 317 people died; this difference is partly due to a bomb which killed 45 in Calcutta on 16 March and was not part of 12 March Bombay bombings).

The bombings caused a major rift within D-Company, the most powerful criminal organisation in the Bombay underworld, headed by Dawood Ibrahim. Infuriated at the bombings, Ibrahim's right-hand man, Chhotta Rajan, split from the organisation and took most of the leadership-level Hindu aides with him, including Sadhu, Jaspal Singh and Mohan Kotiyan. Rajan's split divided the Bombay underworld along communal lines and pitted Chhota Rajan's predominantly Hindu gang against Dawood Ibrahim's predominantly Muslim D-Company. The ensuing gang war took the lives of more than a hundred gangsters and continued into 2017. Seven of the accused (Salim Kurla, Majeed Khan, Shakil Ahmed, Mohammed Jindran, Hanif Kadawala, Akbar Abu Sama Khan, and Mohammed Jabir Abdul Latif) were assassinated by Rajan's hitmen.'' Black Friday: the true story of the Bombay bomb blasts'', S. Hussain Zaidi, Penguin Books, 2002, p. 279

Arrests, convictions and verdict

Hundreds of people were arrested and detained in the Indian courts. In 2006, 100 of 129 accused were convicted by Justice PD Kode of the specially designated Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) court. Many of those convicted have eluded custody, including the mastermind of the attacks, Tiger Memon.

On 12 September 2006, the special TADA court convicted four members of the Memon family on charges of conspiring and abetting acts of terror. They faced jail terms from five years to life imprisonment, that would be determined based on the severity of their crime. Three other members of the Memon family were acquitted with the judge giving them the benefit of the doubt.

Yakub Memon was charged with possession of unauthorised arms. After the bombings, family members of Tiger Memon, including Yakub, escaped to Dubai and Pakistan. Correspondents said Tiger owned a restaurant in Mumbai and was allegedly closely associated with Dawood Ibrahim, the suspected mastermind. Except for Tiger and Yakub, the entire family returned to India and was promptly arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation in 1994. Yakub was later taken into custody and was undergoing treatment for depression. The Memon family was tried in court and found guilty of conspiracy. The defence lawyers asked for leniency in the sentencing and caused delays in the process. Yakub Memon was executed by hanging in Nagpur Central Jail at 6:35 a.m. IST on 30 July 2015. Two of the accused, Mohammed Umar Khatlab and Badshah Khan (a pseudonym given by the prosecution to hide his real identity), turned state informers.

In February 2007, prosecutors asked for the death penalty for 44 of the 100 convicted. The prosecution also requested the death penalty for those convicted of conspiracy in the case. Asghar Yusuf Mukadam and Shahnawaz Qureshi, who were found guilty of involvement in the bombings pleaded for leniency, claiming that they were not terrorists and were emotionally driven to participate in the act. Mukadam claimed that the main conspirators took advantage of his "frame of mind" after the demolition of Babri Masjid and the subsequent riots, alleging police partiality during the riots. "Vested interests" instigated him to act as he did. Quareshi was trained in Pakistan to handle arms and ammunition. He and Muquddam parked the explosive-filled vehicle at Plaza cinema which resulted in 10 deaths and 37 injuries. Qureshi reached Pakistan via Dubai, where he claims he was taken "under the pretext of providing ... an alternative job". He claimed his house was set on fire during the riots.

Some of the conspirators who managed to flee India after the bombings were arrested and extradited to India. These conspirators were declared absconders during the trial. Abu Salem

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