38 Muslim 'terrorists' served death sentence for 2008 Ahmedabad bombings

New Delhi 

A Special Court in Ahmedabad in Gujarat on Friday ordered death sentence to 38 convicts for the 2008 Ahmedabad serial blasts.

As many as 49 Muslims in total were convicted by the court and the rest 11 have been given life imprisonment.

File snap : 2008, July 26, Ahmedabad

Special Judge A R Patel awarded a compensation of Rs 1 lakh to those who had died in the blasts and a compensation of Rs 50,000 for victims with serious injuries and Rs 25,000 for those with minor ones.

The convicts have been found guilty on charges of murder, sedition, waging war against the state and various provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code.

One of the convicts, Usman, the only one convicted under the Arms Act and among those sentenced to death, has been additionally awarded a year of imprisonment for conviction under the Arms Act.

The court has also imposed a fine of Rs 2.85 lakh on each of the 48 convicts.

On February 8, the Special Judge had declared 49 of the total 78 accused as guilty under 

various offences of the Indian Penal Code, including for murder, sedition and waging war 

against the state.

All 49 of the victims have also been found guilty under various provisions for offences under the UAPA, Explosive Substances Act.

A different modus operandi was applied and the bombs were planted in tiffinbox mostly in bicycles.  

In 2008 the country's law and order stood threatened by Islamic militants and especially Indian Mujahideen in more ways than one.

Serial bomb blasts were carried out in cities such as Delhi, Bengaluru and Ahmedabad during the tenure of Dr Manmohan Singh as the country's Prime Minister and Shivraj Patil (a chosen man for the job by Sonia Gandhi) as the Union Home Minister.

Of course, after 26/11 in Mumbai Patil later resigned.  

The 2008 Ahmedabad bombings were a series of 21 bomb blasts that hit Gujarat's commercial hub and traders' paradise Ahmedabad on July 26, 2008, within a span of 70 minutes. 

Fifty-six people were killed and over 200 people were injured. 

Several TV channels and media organisations reportedly received e-mail from the terror outfit called the Indian Mujahideen claiming responsibility for the terror attacks.

However, a militant group Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami also claimed responsibility for the attacks.

The Gujarat police initially arrested the suspected mastermind, Mufti Abu Bashir, along with nine others, in connection to the bombings in Ahmedabad.

These bombings in Ahmedabad occurred a day after the Bangalore blasts. 

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Of course, it may be added that three days later, on July 29, 2008, a total of 23 bombs were defused in diamond processing and residential areas of Surat.

The Ahmedabad explosions of 2008 and the probe by central agencies and Gujarat cops were significant in more ways than one.

* Notably, for the first time the Indian Mujahideen terrorists targeted the trauma centre of civil hospital, where the bomb injured were being brought.

One car with IED was parked in a Ahmedabad hospital.

Again, maximum number of casualties and injured occurred at the hospital were those innocents and social workers who had come to donate blood and to help blast victims.

* The Ahmedabad terror strike was seen as a part of Indian Mujahideen's revenge operation for the 2002 riots in Gujarat.

## The Indian Mujahideen group had activated strike against India in 2005 already. 

 At that time, DGP Gujarat was P C Pande, Joint Commissioner (Crime), who carried out the investigation, now DGP Gujarat Ashish Bhatia, then Baroda Police commissioner and now Delhi Police Commissioner Rakesh Asthana unearthed the Indian Mujahideen group for the first time. 

The state police had the backing of then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and then State Home Minister Amit Shah.

It is said, Ahmedabad blasts case (of uly 26, 2008) was solved after one of the cars used in the blast had a GJ-6 or Baroda fake registration.

The newspaper used to wrap the Surat IEDs was published in Baroda. 

It was investigations conducted in Baroda that led to arrest of persons, which led to the unravelling of the case. 

The Ahmedabad blasts investigations not only led to pin-pointing of real terrorists behind the bombing but also led to cracking up of the entire Azamgarh, Delhi, Mumbai and Bhatkal modules of the group which had the support of jihadist groups across the border. 

The Batla House encounter in Delhi which was based on so called 'Azamgarh module' also could be unraveled following the leads from Ahmedabad blast investigations.

* The Ahmedabad IEDs were assembled by the Azamgarh module of Indian Mujahideen, while the Surat IEDs (which were defused) were made by Riyaz and Iqbal Bhatkal group. 

The ammonium nitrate explosive was sourced from Karnataka with the jihadists brainwashed by ex-SIMI leaders like Safdar Nagori and Sarai Meer Mufti Abu Bashir. 

The case was solved after Mufti Abu Bashir was picked up by the Gujarat Police and Intelligence Bureau from Sarai Meer on August 16, 2008. 

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