New Delhi: The designated TADA court hearing the 1993 Mumbai blasts case on Tuesday sentenced three accused to death and one to life imprisonment for throwing hand grenades at Mahim Fishermen Colony that killed three people.
While accused No. 43 Mohd Moin Qureshi has been sentenced for life, accused No. 32 Zaqir Hussain, accused No. 39 Firoz Malik and accused No. 36 Yaqub Khan Akhtar Khan will be hanged to death.
The trio also attended weapons training in Pakistan organised by prime absconding accused Tiger Memon.
The court held that theirs was a "terrorist act which is synonymous with waging a war" against the Union of India as they had intentionally gone to the colony in Mahim with the "heinous objective" of killing innocent people.
"In violence, the accused have the victim in mind but in the case of terrorism, an act of cowardice, it is not against a particular victim but society at large," Kode said.
The total number of death sentences in the blasts case has gone up to nine now.
Last week, TADA court judge P D Kode awarded death to Mohd Shoaib Ghansar, Shahnawaz Qureshi and Asgar Muqadam for their roles in the serial blasts on March 12, 1993.
Muqadam was given death for planting the bomb near Plaza theatre that killed 10 people, injured 36 and caused damages worth Rs 87 lakh. He also transported RDX to Al-Husaini Building, which is the Memon family residence.
Judge Kode observed that Mukadam had dragged Ghansar into the conspiracy a day before the blasts, but said no leniency could be shown on the charges of causing death and committing a terrorist act.
Shanawaz Qureshi, who was also with Mukadam while planting the Plaza Bomb, had been convicted by the court for illegally travelling to Pakistan, where he received training in handling arms and explosives.
Mukadam's cousin Shoaib Ghansar, who parked a RDX-filled scooter at busy Zaveri Bazaar that killed 17 people and injured 57, too was sentenced to death by the court on the counts of murder and participating in a terrorist act.
Ghansar had also helped set off blasts at Sea Rock and Centaur Hotel.
The court has so far sentenced 84 of the 100 people convicted for the serial blasts in the financial capital.
The first three death sentences, including that of Abdul Gani Turk who planted a bomb in Worli that killed 113 people, were handed down by the special court on Thursday.
Fourteen people have been given life imprisonment and 16 convicts, including actor Sanjay Dutt, found guilty of illegally possessing arms, are yet to be sentenced.
Twelve blasts on March 12, 1993 killed 257 people and injured over 700 in Mumbai.
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