Hyderabad: Huji suicide blast case drags on for 11 years
The blast was carried out by a Bangladeshi suicide bomber on October 12, 2005, which killed one home guard.
Hyderabad: The trial of Harkat-ul-Jihad-e-Islami (Huji) terror operatives, allegedly involved in the first suicide bomb attack on the Hyderabad Commissioner’s Task Force office in Begumpet, has dragged on for 11 years now.
A home guard was killed and another injured in the attack on October 12, 2005.
The case was split into two. In the main case, examination and cross-examination are completed and now the defence arguments will be heard.
In the second case, prosecution witnesses are still being heard.
Sleuths of Hyderabad Special Investigation Team want to ensure that the trial speeds up after the judgement in the Dilsukhnagar bomb blast case came out this week. The Begumpet case was initially booked with the Panjagutta police and later transferred to the Special Investigation Team.
Huji trial stalled in 2012 for 2 years
CCS DCP Avinash Mohanty, who took over a few months ago, is focusing on the case. The trial started in 2007. Of the 20 accused, eight were arrested. They are Mohammad Abdul Zahed, brother of Shahed Bilal of Huji, Abdul Kaleem, Shakeel, Haji, Ajmal, Azmath Mehmood Baroodwala and Mohamed Abdul Khaja alias Amjad.
In 2010, the HC granted an injunction on an alteration in the case and the same was vacated in a year when the case was shifted from the metropolitan sessions judge to the Special Court for Communal Disturbances.
In 2012, the trial was stalled for two years as investigating officer M. Diwakar, a former ACP with SIT, was out of the country. It resumed after he returned.
In June 2016, the court rejected the bail of one of the accused, Nafisul Biswas of West Bengal, one of the key accused. He together with Ghulam Yazdani, Shahed Bilal of Moosarambagh and Abdul Kaleem played a key role in bringing one Dalin, the suicide bomber, from Bangla-desh, according to SIT.
Ghulam Yazdani was killed in 2006 in an “encounter”. Shahed Bilal, who had not been arrested, is believed to have been shot dead in Pakistan by the ISI. Baroodwala was able to obtain bail earlier due to the delay in the trial. The bombing was carried out by the Bangladeshi to avenge the killing of Mujahid Salim by Gujarat police. in 2004.