SC Stays ’93 Mumbai Blast Convict Tahir Merchant’s Death Sentence

Mohammed Tahir Merchant was convicted for conspiring, facilitating and knowingly commissioning acts of terror.

According to news agency ANI, the Supreme Court of India on Monday stayed the death sentence of Mohammed Tahir Merchant, the convict in Mumbai’s 1993 blast case. Merchant was convicted for conspiring, facilitating and knowingly commissioning acts of terror.

The series of 13 blasts, which took place on 12 March 1993, had killed more than 250 people and had injured around 700. After two days of the blast the death toll had reached 700 and the number of injured people was around 1,500.

According to a News18 report, this is the largest coordinated terror attack to have taken place on Indian soil in terms of the number of casualties. It was also the first terror attack on Indian soil in which RDX was used as the explosive material.

Mohammed Tahir Merchant’s Role in The Blast

As per a Hindustan Times report, Tahir Merchant made transport arrangements for the co-accused who were trained in Pakistan. He, along with Karimullah Khan, had arranged their passports too. Merchant attended conspiracy meetings in Dubai and motivated his associates to arrange men from Mumbai to be sent to Pakistan for arms training. He collected funds to procure arms and planned to set up an illegal arms manufacturing factory in India.

(With Inputs from ANI, News18 and The Hindustan Times.)

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