Hanif Syed, 2003 Mumbai Blasts Convict, Dies in Hospital

Syed was convicted of planting bombs in two taxis that exploded at the Gateway of India and Zaveri Bazaar in 2003.

File image of Hanif Syed.

(Photo Courtesy: Twitter/@prashantkanishk)

Mohammad Hanif Syed, one of the three convicts sentenced to death in the 2003 Mumbai twin bomb blasts and lodged in the Nagpur Central Jail, died at a hospital, a prison officer said Sunday, 10 February.

Syed’s health suddenly deteriorated Saturday evening, 9 February, following which he was shifted to the Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) where he died one and half hours after admission, Jail Superintendent Rani Bhosle told PTI.

“The exact cause of his death will be known after post-mortem, which will be conducted Monday in the presence of his relatives who have arrived in the city Sunday.”

Rani Bhosle, Jail Superintendent

He added that Syed’s body will be handed over to his relatives after autopsy.

As per preliminary information and symptoms, he could have died of a cardiac arrest, Bhosle said.

Syed, his wife Fehmida and third conspirator Ashrat Ansari were convicted by a POTA (Prevention of Terrorist Activity) court in 2009 of planting powerful bombs in two taxis that exploded at the iconic Gateway of India and Zaveri Bazaar on 25 August 2003, killing 52 and injuring 244.

Syed was shifted to the Nagpur Central Jail from Yerwada jail in 2012, after the Bombay High Court upheld his death sentence.

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