In the 2008 Ahmedabad serial blasts that took 56 lives, 38 prisoners get death sentences; life imprisonment until death for 11.
In the 2008 Ahmedabad serial blasts: 38 convicts get death sentence; life imprisonment until death for 11. A special court in Gujarat on Friday pronounced death sentence to 38 out of 49 convicts in 2008 Ahmedabad serial bomb blast case, giving life imprisonment until death to the 11 other accused. More than 13 years after the first arrest was made, the special court had on February 8 held 49 people guilty of carrying out a terror strike in Ahmedabad.
On July 26, 2008, 19 bombs rocked the city within a span of 70 minutes and killed 56 people, injuring more than 200 others. While convicting 49 people, including former Student Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) leader Safdar Nagori, the court has acquitted 28 accused people and granted pardon to the approver, Aiyaz Saiyed, by dropping charges against him. Out of the 28 people acquitted, the court said that it did not find evidence against them, while 16 others were given the benefit of doubt by saying that evidence presented against them was not adequate.
Of the 28 acquitted, 27 people had paid about 13 years in jail. One of them, Naved Qadri, was released on temporary bail on account of his suffering from schizophrenia. In this terrorist strike, hospitals were targeted for the first time in the country. The blast occurred at the Civil Hospital, 45 people lost their lives. They included some who had rushed to the hospital to donate blood to the injured victims who were brought to the hospital for treatment.
One blast also took place at LG Hospital, but none was injured there. The trial was conducted by the court after merging 35 different cases registered against the accused in Ahmedabad and Surat. There were 20 FIRs lodged in Ahmedabad for the bomb blasts and 15 registered in Surat as 29 unexploded bombs were recovered from various parts of the city a couple of days after the terror strike.
The 2008 attacks in Ahmedabad happened in two waves early in the evening local time. Some of the devices were hidden in lunchboxes or bicycles. The first series exploded near busy marketplaces. The second, about 20 minutes later, went off in and around a hospital where casualties were being taken.
Dr. Vipul Patil at the Dhanwantari Hospital at that time had said, ‘We saw a blue bag near the trauma center, and before we could react, we saw it explode in a shine of blinding light, and some 40 people were hit by flying shrapnel.’
The side of a bus was blown off and its windows shattered while another vehicle was consumed in flames. Over the spur of attacks, targets have included mosques, Hindu temples, and trains.
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