Indian court jails Mumbai 1993 blasts convict for life

File photo of Abu Salem (C) is surrounded by policemen as he arrives at a court in the southern city of Hyderabad, India, December 20, 2007. (REUTERS)

MUMBAI: A court on Thursday jailed for life Abu Salem, convicted of involvement in India’s most deadly bombings, a series of blasts in the financial capital that killed 257 people in 1993, television channels said.
The fate of the other four men found guilty of the blasts along with Abu Salem, a prominent member of the group that planned the attack, was not immediately known.
In June, a court had ruled six men, including Abu Salem, guilty of involvement in the blasts that shook Mumbai more than two decades ago, but one died in prison before sentencing.
Investigators had said the bombs were ordered by India’s most wanted man, gangster Dawood Ibrahim, to avenge the demolition of the historic Babri mosque in north India by Hindu hard-liners in 1992, during a period of religious conflict.