On 7th July, the Gujarat High Court upheld a special court’s order sentencing 38 convicts of Indian Mujahideen to death and 11 others to life imprisonment in the 2008 Ahmedabad serial blasts case.
A Division Bench comprising Justice A.Y. Kogje and Justice Samir Dave dismissed all pleas challenging the special court’s 2022 verdict. In its Tuesday ruling, the Gujarat High Court upheld the sentences awarded to members of the terror outfit Indian Mujahideen in the case.
The serial bomb blasts that took place in Ahmedabad on 26th July 2008 had caused 56 deaths, and 243 innocent citizens were injured in the blasts.
On 8th February 2022, the court had convicted 49 out of 77 accused in the case. Following this, on 18th February 2022, a special court in Ahmedabad awarded death sentences to as many as 38 convicts out of the 49 accused who were convicted in this case, while the remaining 11 have been sentenced to life imprisonment until death.
The list of all 49 convicts in the case is given below.
| 1. Zahid Sheikh | 18. Sarfuddin Itti | 34. Abubasar Sheikh |
| 2. Imran Sheikh | 19. Md. Sadiq Sheikh | 35. Abaas Sameza |
| 3. Iqbal Sheikh | 20. Md Arif Sheikh | 36. Saifu Ansari |
| 4. Samsuddin Sheikh | 21. Akbar Chaudhary | 37. Md. Saif Sheikh |
| 5. Javed Sheikh | 22. Fazal Durani | 38. Zishan Sheikh |
| 6. Asif Sheikh | 23. Nausad Sayed | 39. Jia-ur-Rahman |
| 7. Atique Khiljee | 24. Ahmed Barelvi | 40. Tanveer Pathan |
| 8. Mehdi Ansari | 25. Rafiq Afidi | 41. Abraar Maniyar |
| 9. Safiq Ansari | 26. Amin Sheik | 42. Shaduli Karim |
| 10. Rafiuddin | 27. Md. Mobin Khan | 43. Tausif Pathan |
| 11. Arif Mirza | 28. Md. Ansar | 44. Md. Ali Ansari |
| 12. Kabumuddin | 29. Gyasuddin Ansari | 45. Md. Ismail |
| 13. Sibyl Muslim | 30. Arif Kagzi | 46. Kamruddin |
| 14. Safdar Nagori | 31. Usmaan | 47. Aleem Kazi |
| 15. Hafiz Mulla | 32. Yunus Mansoori | 48. Aniq Sayed |
| 16. Sajid Mansoori | 33. Imran Pathan | 49. Md. Shaqil |
| 17. Afzal Usmani |
2008 Ahmedabad bomb blast
On 26th July 2008, 20 serial bomb blasts had left the city of Ahmedabad in shock. The haunting memories of this terror attack still leave the people in a trauma-like situation. Within three weeks of the attack, major arrests, in this case, had taken place owing to the coordinated efforts of the Gujarat police and the ATS. A big network of the Indian Mujahideen terrorists was exposed. These terrorists were also involved in the bomb blasts in other cities of the country. Then Gujarat CM Narendra Modi had extended every possible support to the investigating officers to ensure that a strong case was built against the terrorists.
The Gujarat police had claimed that these attacks were executed as an attempt to take revenge for the 2002 post-Godhra riots. Indian Mujahideen was a section of the banned organisation Students Islamic Movement of India that is SIMI. The terrorists had sent threat emails about these blasts to various news channels and media houses. Also, a few days after the blasts, a large number of live bombs were found and defused in Surat city of Gujarat.
