NIA court convicts 5 IM men for 2013 Dilsukhnagar blasts

​Hyderabad: Five terror operatives of the Indian Mujahideen (IM) who were involved in the 2013 Dilsukhnagar twin blasts were convicted by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) special court on Tuesday.

The quantum of punishment will be pronounced on December 19 after hearing arguments by the defence and the prosecution. This is the first case in which any operative of the IM has been convicted.

All the five terror operatives were convicted under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code, Explosive Substances Act, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and the Public Property Damages Act.

The convicted terror operatives include – Yasin Bhatkal aka Mohammed Ahmed Siddibappa Zarar, Asadullah Akhtar aka Haddi, Zia Ur Rahman aka Waqas, Mohammed Tahseen Akhtar aka Hassan and Ajaz Shaik aka Samar.

The kingpin of entire conspiracy, Mohammed Riyaz Bhatkal is still absconding. NIA officials said the trial against Riyaz has been split. “A separate trial will be conducted whenever he is nabbed,” Special Public Prosecutor for NIA, Surender Rao said.

On February 21, 2013, two consecutive bomb explosions took place at Dilsukhnagar killing 18 persons, including one unborn child and injured 131 persons. Initially, two cases were registered – one by the Saroornagar police of Cyberabad and another by Malakpet police of Hyderabad city police. However, both the cases were later transferred to NIA for investigation.

The NIA first arrested Yasin Bhatkal, the co-founder of IM and Asadullah Akhtar from Indo-Nepal border in August 2013. Subsequently, other three accused were arrested by the security agencies, while the kingpin Riyaz Bhatkal is still at large and NIA suspects he is hiding in Pakistan.

During the trial, prosecution examined 157 witnesses and marked 486 exhibits and 173 material objects as evidence.