BOMBAY, 30 September 2006 — A special anti-terror court yesterday found five men guilty of receiving arms training in Pakistan and plotting the 1993 serial blasts in Bombay.
Judge P.D. Kode found the five — Gul Mohammed Noor Mohammed Shaikh, Shaikh Ibrahim Shaikh, Mohammed Hanif Mohammed Usman Shaikh, Shaikh Usman Mian Khan and Mohammed Sayed Mohammed Ishaq —guilty of participating in the terrorist attacks, as well as conspiracy related to meetings with alleged blasts mastermind Tiger Memon in Dubai. They were also found to have traveled to Pakistan from the UAE for arms training.
The judge said the men had been trained in explosives and they manufactured car bombs under the direction of Memon. The convicts were taken into custody after the verdict was issued and their bonds canceled. With yesterday’s convictions, 25 people have been found guilty of the blasts that killed 257 people and injured 713.
Meanwhile, a top investigator said police have arrested four people suspected of playing a role in the July 11 train bombings that killed more than 200 people.
The four men were identified as Mohammed Shafi, Shaikh Mohammed, Mohammed Majid and Abdul Vahiuddin, said police officer K.P. Raghuvanshi, who heads Bombay’s anti-terror squad,
They were brought to a court in Bombay, where the judge ordered them held in police custody until Oct. 13, he said.
One of them was from the eastern Indian city of Calcutta, while the other three lived in Bombay, he said, adding police suspect they have links to militant groups.
Police have so far arrested 14 people and questioned hundreds since the attacks in which seven bombs ripped through suburban trains in Bombay. Last week, a top police officer said investigators were close to solving the case.
