Hyderabad: In a major development, banned terror outfit Indian Mujahideen's (IM) co-founder Yasin Bhatkal and four others were on Tuesday convicted for their role in 2013 Dilsukhnagar blasts in Andhra Pradesh.
At least 16 people were killed and several others injured in the twin blasts.
The NIA court, which convicted the five terrorists of Indian Mujahideen, will pronounce the quantum of sentence on December 19.
This is the first conviction of IM-linked terrorists in terror-related incidents in the country, according to PTI.
#YasinBhatkal, 4 others convicted by Hyderabad court for Dilsukhnagar blasts in 1st conviction of #IndianMujahideen cadre.
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) December 13, 2016
Bhatkal was arrested in 2013. Bhatkal's in-laws and his immediate neighbours had no clue that he was a dreaded terrorist at the time of his arrest.
The twin blasts were triggered by IEDs planted near Konark and Venkatadiri theatres in Dilsukhnagar area of Hyderabad on February 21, 2013.
Bhatkal, who hails from Bhatkal village of Udupi district in North Karnataka, is also wanted in a string of terror attacks in Ahmedabad, Surat, Bangalore, Pune, Delhi and Hyderabad, according to an earlier PTI report.
The NIA has said that IM, which was banned by the Centre on June 22, 2009, was involved in the November 2007 blasts in courts of Varanasi, Faizabad and Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh, the Varanasi blast of July 11, 2006, the Mumbai serial blasts of July 11, 2006 and the Hyderabad twin blasts of August 25, 2007.
Besides this, Jaipur blast of May 13, 2008, Ahmedabad serial blasts of July 26, 2008, September 13, 2008 serial blasts in Delhi, Pune’s German Bakery blast in February 2010, Chinnaswami stadium blast in Bangalore on April 17, 2010 and Mumbai serial blasts of July 13, 2011 were also allegedly carried out by IM, the NIA said earlier.
