Indian court sentences 5 to death over 2006 Mumbai blasts
An Indian court has sentenced five men to death and jailed seven for life for planning serial bomb blasts that killed nearly 200 people in the port city of Mumbai in 2006.
Defense lawyer, Abdul Wahab Khan, told reporters outside the specially convened court in Mumbai on Wednesday that the 12 men were convicted of murder, conspiracy and waging war against the country.
Khan also noted that all convicts have decided to appeal against the verdict at the Bombay High Court, adding, "We still believe they have been framed and the court has relied on confessions and not on mitigating evidence."
Some defendants said they were tortured by Indian police seeking to extract confessions.
Reacting to the verdict, Mahendra Pitale, who lost his left hand during one of the explosions, said the verdict would bring some relief to the families who lost their loved ones.
"Many families lost their breadwinners that day and this judgement brings some amount of relief," Pitale added.
On July 11, 2006, seven bombs exploded within 15 minutes on packed commuter trains during the evening rush hour in Mumbai. The bombs were packed into seven pressure cookers and put in bags.
The serial bombings claimed the lives of at least 189 people and injured more than 800.
Prosecutors said the devices were deliberately placed in first-class coaches to target the city's wealthy Gujarati community.
The explosions were seen as retaliation for riots in the western state of Gujarat in 2002 that killed some 2,000 people.
Prosecutors say the attack was hatched by Pakistan's spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), and carried out by operatives from Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, an al-Qaeda-linked militant group.
Pakistan has vehemently denied India's claims, saying New Delhi had given no evidence of Islamabad’s involvement in the attacks.
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