Four arrested in India over deadly 1993 Mumbai blasts

Twelve bombs killed more than 250 people in an alleged revenge attack

A police officer examines a charred car outside the Air India building in March 13, 1993, the day after a series of bombs exploded in Mumbai, then called Bombay. AFP

People survey the damage at the scene of one of the explosions. Getty Images

A double-decker bus passes a crater caused by one of a series of bombs that rocked the western port city of Bombay. AFP

Officials inspect bomb damage in the basement of the Air India building in Bombay. AFP

People cover their faces from the stench of decaying bodies, while attempting to identify relatives at the King Edward Memorial Hospital morgue in Bombay, in 1993. AFP

Four men wanted over a series of deadly bomb blasts in Mumbai 29 years ago have been arrested in India’s western Gujarat state.

Twelve co-ordinated explosions rocked the financial capital of India, then known as Bombay, on March 12, 1993, killing 257 people and wounding 1,400.

Organised crime boss Dawood Ibrahim and six of his associates were accused of being behind the deadly attacks.

The four people identified by police – Abu Bakar, Saiyad Qureshi, Mohammad Shoeb Qureshi and Mohammad Yusuf Ismail – are believed to have received arms training in Pakistan before the attacks.

All four were Mumbai residents and were on the run for 29 years. They were arrested in Ahmedabad city on May 12 after a tip-off, police said.

“The four persons were detained on suspicion of [holding] fake passports. The investigation officer found that the four arrested men were wanted in the Bombay serial blast case in 1993. They were then arrested,” said Deepan Bhadran of the Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad.

“They went to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir on the instructions of ISIS and got trained in improvised explosive devices and other arms. They were absconding but returned [recently] for some passport modification when we traced them."

Terrorists planted the bombs in cars and scooters and placed them in hotels, banks and busy markets. Grenades were thrown at a fishermen’s colony and one of the terminals of the city’s international airport.

The first bomb exploded in the basement of the prominent Bombay Stock Exchange building, killing 50 people.

Properties worth 270 million rupees ($3.4m) were destroyed in the co-ordinated attacks.

The gangsters allegedly planned the blasts to avenge the killings of Muslims in communal riots that year same year after the demolition of Babri Masjid in northern India.

Seven men were detained between 2003 and 2010 and tried separately in the blasts. While Ibrahim was a fugitive, a court found six of his associates guilty.

One man, Mustafa Dossa, died of cardiac arrest after his conviction. Another convict Yakub Memon was executed in 2015.

Two convicts, Firoz Khan and Tahir Merchant, were given death sentences in 2017 whereas Abu Salem, who fled India after the bombings, was extradited from Portugal in 2005. He received a life sentence. Another accused, Riyaz Siddiqui, was sentenced to 10 years in jail.

Abu Bakar is accused of dumping a consignment of weapons into the sea after the blasts.