1993 Bombay bombings
The 1993 Bombay bombings was a series of 12 terrorist bombings that took place in Bombay (now Mumbai), Maharashtra, on 12 March 1993. The single-day attacks resulted in 257 fatalities and 1,400 injuries. The attacks were coordinated by Dawood Ibrahim, leader of the Mumbai-based international organised crime syndicate D-Company. Ibrahim was believed to have ordered and helped organize the bombings through his subordinates Tiger Memon and Yakub Memon.
1993 Bombay bombings | |
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Location | Bombay (now Mumbai), Maharashtra, India |
Date | 12 March 1993 13:30–15:40 (UTC+05:30) |
Target |
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Attack type |
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Weapons | 13 car bombs (RDX) containing shrapnel |
Deaths | 257 |
Injured | 1,400 |
Perpetrators | Mafia groups affiliated with the D-Company |
For several years, confusion existed about the number of blasts, whether they were 12 or 13 in number. This was because Sharad Pawar, the then chief minister of Maharashtra, stated on television that day that there had been 13 blasts, and included a Muslim-dominated locality in the list. He later revealed that he had lied on purpose and that there had been only 12 blasts, none of them in Muslim-dominated areas; he also confessed that he had attempted to mislead the public into believing that the blasts could be the work of the LTTE, a Sri Lankan militant organization, when in fact intelligence reports had already confirmed to him that Mumbai's underworld (known as the "D-Company", a reference to Dawood Ibrahim) were the perpetrators of the serial blasts.
The Supreme Court of India gave its judgement on 21 March 2013, after over 20 years of judicial proceedings, upholding the death sentence against suspected ringleader Yakub while commuting the previous death sentences against 10 others to life in prison. However, two of the main suspects in the case, Ibrahim and Tiger, have not yet been arrested or tried. After India's three-judge Supreme Court bench rejected his curative petition, saying the grounds raised by him do not fall within the principles laid down by the apex court in 2002, the Maharashtra government executed Yakub on 30 July 2015.