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AHMEDABAD, India (AFP) – An Indian court docket sentenced 38 individuals to dying on Friday over a string of bomb blasts in 2008 that killed dozens within the western metropolis of Ahmedabad.
The court docket had on February 8 convicted 49 individuals over the coordinated assaults that killed 56, launching shrapnel via markets, buses and different public locations in Gujarat state’s industrial hub.
“Particular choose A R Patel awarded dying sentence to 38 out of the 49 convicted,” stated particular public prosecutor Amit Patel.
“Eleven of the convicted have been sentenced to life imprisonment until dying.”
A gaggle calling itself the Indian Mujahideen claimed duty, and stated the act was revenge for 2002 spiritual riots within the state that left some 1,000 individuals lifeless.
Practically 80 individuals have been charged for the 2008 Ahmedabad assaults however 28 have been acquitted, in response to prosecutor Amit Patel.

The convicted have been all discovered responsible of homicide and prison conspiracy, he added.
The marathon trial lasted almost a decade — due to India’s labyrinthine authorized system — with greater than 1,100 witnesses referred to as to testify.
It was dragged out by procedural delays, together with a authorized battle by 4 of the accused to retract confessions.
Police additionally foiled a 2013 try by greater than a dozen of the defendants to tunnel their method out of jail utilizing meals plates as digging instruments.
All 77 accused have been held in custody for years, apart from one who was bailed after a schizophrenia prognosis.
Ahmedabad was the centre of lethal 2002 spiritual riots that noticed at the least 1,000 individuals — principally Muslims — hacked, shot and burned to dying.

The violence was prompted by the dying of 59 Hindus in a practice fireplace — a case through which 31 Muslims have been convicted for prison conspiracy and homicide.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was then head of the state authorities and has subsequently been dogged by accusations of turning a blind eye to the violence.
India was rocked by a number of deadly bomb assaults in 2008 claimed by the Indian Mujahideen group — with dozens killed within the capital New Delhi and northern vacationer metropolis of Jaipur.
In November of that yr, 166 individuals have been killed by gunmen armed with explosive gadgets, in a coordinated assault on motels and different high-profile targets in Mumbai that was blamed on Pakistan-based militants.
© Agence France-Presse
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