HYDERABAD: A special court here on Friday has acquitted nine accused persons of their involvement in the 1993 serial bomb blasts in Hyderabad.

Seven of them and the alleged mastermind behind the blasts, Jaleel Ansari, were already sentenced to life for carrying out bomb blasts in Ajmer. Jaleel Ansari, who is presently in Ajmer jail, would be brought to Hyderabad for the conduct of a separate trial against him. Two Hyderabadis, Khaja Mujbuddin Habeeb and Azeez Akbar, who were charged with involvement in Hyderabad blasts were among the acquitted.

Ansari and his associates were accused of carrying out the bomb blasts at several places in the country in retaliation against the demolition of Babri Masjid and the subsequent attacks on minorities in Gulbarga, Karnataka. While Ansari is from Maharashtra, seven of his agents belong to Gulbarga and the other two hail from Hyderabad.

They allegedly received support from terrorist organisations like Lashkar-e-Toiba.

On August 12, 1993, they planted bombs with timer devices in the vicinity of Humayun Nagar and Abids police stations in Hyderabad. The bombs exploded causing damage to the compound wall of Humayun Nagar police station and injuring the watchman of a shop adjacent to Abids police station.

In another incident on September 12, 1993, a powerful bomb explosion rocked the central reservations complex of Secunderabad railway station, killing two railway officials and seriously injuring another.

On October 22, 1993, a bomb exploded at an educational institute at Nampally, killing one person on the spot and causing injuries to two others.

Similarly, a bomb exploded in a compartment of the Andhra Pradesh Express near Moula Ali on December 6, 1993, killing two persons and injuring 14 others.

The Hyderabad police arrested them in 1996. During interrogation, Ansari confessed to have carried out a similar blast at other places, including Rajasthan.

A local court there sentenced eight of them, including Ansari, to life imprisonment in that case.

The Seventh Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate-cum-Communal Offences Court here acquitted them of the charges of involvement in the serial bomb blasts in Hyderabad in 1993.

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