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Fahmeeda Syed Mohammed Haneef was escorted to her sentencing yesterday. (AFP/Getty Images) |
India sentences 3 to death in ’03 attack
MUMBAI, India - An Indian court sentenced two men and a woman to death yesterday for their roles in a 2003 terrorist attack in the city of Mumbai that killed 52 people. Investigators said they belonged to the same banned militant group blamed for attacks in the city last year in which 166 people died.
Two taxis carrying explosives blew up within minutes of each other on Aug. 25, 2003, at a popular tourist attraction on the city’s waterfront and at a busy shopping complex. In addition to the dead, 100 were wounded.
Ashrat Shafiq Mohammed Ansari, Syed Mohammed Haneef Abdul Rahim, and his wife, Fahmeeda Syed Mohammed Haneef, were convicted last month of murder, conspiracy to kill, and damaging public property.
Ujjwal Nikam, the public prosecutor, said he welcomed the court’s decision to impose the death penalty.
The three had pleaded not guilty and their lawyers said they plan to appeal the verdict to the state high court.
Three others were arrested in connection with the attacks but were released without charge.
Investigators believe the bombings were revenge for religious riots in the western state of Gujarat in 2002.
About 1,000 people, most of them Muslims, were killed when Hindu mobs rampaged through Muslim neighborhoods, towns, and villages in the state in 2002.
Investigators had said all three defendants were members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a banned Pakistan-based militant group formed in the 1980s - with the alleged blessing of Pakistani intelligence officials - to sow trouble in the disputed Kashmir region. The three denied involvement with the group.
© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.
