Indian court sentences 38 to death for fatal 2008 bombings

NEW DELHI (AP) — A court docket in India on Friday sentenced to demise 38 folks for a collection of bomb blasts in 2008 that left greater than 50 useless and 200 wounded within the metropolis of Ahmedabad in Gujarat state, which has a historical past of violent clashes between Hindus and Muslims.

It was the primary time that so many accused have acquired demise sentence in a single case in India. The sentence have to be confirmed by the next court docket.

Decide A. R. Patel additionally sentenced 11 folks to life imprisonment within the case wherein greater than a dozen bombs went off in a number of components of Ahmedabad.

A militant Islamic group known as Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami claimed accountability for the bombings. It was thought of to be Pakistani-based however apparently is not lively.

The assaults occurred in two waves with explosive gadgets hidden in lunchboxes and bicycles. The primary blast happened close to crowded busy procuring facilities in Ahmedabad and the second about 20 minutes later in and round hospitals the place casualties had been being taken.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the chief minister — the highest elected official — of Gujarat state on the time.

The state has a historical past of tensions between Hindus and minority Muslims. It was the positioning of main violence in 2002 that left greater than 1,000 folks useless. It was triggered by a hearth on a prepare full of Hindu pilgrims that killed 60 passengers.

The trigger was by no means confirmed, however Hindu extremists blamed the deaths on Muslims and reacted by rampaging via Muslim areas.

Patel final week convicted the accused of costs of homicide, conspiracy to wage battle in opposition to the state and unlawful possession of arms. He acquitted 28 others for lack of proof greater than 13 years after the bombings killed 56 folks on July 26, 2008.

The trial was concluded in September.