NEW DELHI – Twelve suspected Islamic militants were convicted Friday for the bombings nine years ago of seven Mumbai commuter trains that killed 188 people and wounded more than 800.
The trial in India’s notoriously slow justice system lasted more than seven years. It concluded in August last year, but Judge Yatin D. Shinde took one year to write the verdict.
He found 12 defendants guilty of murder and criminal conspiracy charges and acquitted one person for lack of evidence. Shinde said he would announce the sentence on Monday after hearing arguments from the prosecutors and defence attorneys. They face the death penalty or life in prison.
Seven bombs exploded within a span of 10 minutes in the evening rush hour on trains in Mumbai, the financial and entertainment capital of India, on July 11, 2006.
Prosecutors said the conspiracy was hatched by Pakistan’s Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, and carried out by Lashkar-e-Tayyaba operatives with help from the Students’ Islamic Movement of India, a banned militant organization.
The 12 convicted in the case were believed to belong to the Indian militant group.
The Lashkar-e-Tayyaba is a Pakistan-based Islamic militant group. Pakistan has denied the Indian claims.
The neighbouring countries have fought three wars since their independence from Britain in 1947 and have been engaged in a fitful peace process in recent years.
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