MUMBAI: Two of the five convicts in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case Taher Merchant and Feroze Khan, were on Thursday sentenced to death by a special Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act court. Two others, Abu Salem and Karimullah Khan were sentenced to life in jail. Another convict, Riyaz Siddiqui, was sentenced to 10 years in jail.
The convicts had been charged in cases of criminal conspiracy, murder and indulging in acts of terrorism that cause death.
On March 12, 1993, serial blasts targeting The Bombay Stock Exchange, the offices of Air India and a luxury hotel among others in the city killed 257 and left over 713 injured.
Investigators had said the bombs were ordered by India´s most wanted man, gangster Dawood Ibrahim, in retaliation to the demolition of the historic Babri mosque in north India by Hindu hardliners in 1992, during a period of religious conflict that killed more than 1000 people.
