Nine years after the serial blasts on running suburban trains in Mumbai claimed 189 lives and left 800-odd others injured, a special court here will deliver its verdict on Friday in what has come to be known as India’s 7/11 case.
As many as 187 people were killed and 824 others injured, when the leT-sponsored SIMI terrorists engineered blasts on Mumbai suburban trains at seven places along the Western suburban line, all within a span of 25 minutes on July 11, 2006. Two more survivors --Parag Sawant and Amit Singh died subsequently.
While the last of the survivors Parag died at the PD Hinduja Hospital on July 7, 2015, Singh passed away on May 3, 2013. Both had remained in a near comatose state for nine and seven years respectively. The Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) of the Mumbai police, it may be recalled, filed a chargesheet in the 7/11 case before the Special MCOCA court on November 30, 2006, 142 days after the serial blasts that rocked seven first-class compartments of north-suburban bound trains in Mumbai. Explosives comprising a cocktail of RDX, ammonium nitrate and lubricant, concealed in pressure cookers, were used in the serial bombings.
In its 10,667-page chargesheet filed in the 7/11 case, the ATS listed as many as 28 accused. Of the accused, 13 SIMI are facing the trial in the case. The 13 accused are: Kamal Ansari, Tanvir Ansari, Faisal Shaikh, Ehtesham Siddiqui, Mohammed Shafi, Shaikh Mohammed Ali, Mohammed Ansari, Abdul Wahid Shaikh, Muzammil Shaikh, Soheil Shaikh, Zamir Shaikh, Naved Khan and Asif Khan alias Junaid. Of the 28 identified accused, the ATS had named nine Pakistani nationals allegedly involved in the serial train bombings, including the main conspirator Azam Cheema - all of whom are absconding.
Cheema -- Bahawalpur-based leT commander and one of the key ISI operatives - heads the list of nine Pakistani nationals wanted in the 7/11 case. The eight other Pakistani nationals named in the charge-sheet are: Aslam, Hafizullah, Saabir, Abu Baker, Kasam Ali, Ammu Jaan, Ehsan Ehsanuallah and Abbu Hassan. The Prosecution’s case is that the accused had executed the train blasts at the behest of lashkar-e-Taiba (leT). They have been charged on 32 counts, including murder, criminal conspiracy and waging a war against the nation.