Qureshi, Mukadam plead for compassion

Mumbai, Sep 19 (UNI) Asgar Mukadam and Shahnawaz Qureshi, held guilty of engineering blasts in the Plaza Cinema in 1993, today pleaded for leniency, saying they were emotionally driven to commit the act in the wake of the riots that followed the demolition of the Babri Masjid.

Mukadam said the main conspirator took advantage of his frame of mind after the demolition of the Babri Masjid and the subsequent communal riots.

Mukadam said the police were partial (during the riots) and politicians too did not pay any heed. ''I could not understand what to do and was forced to take revenge (for the riots) due to this.'' According to him, some vested interests took advantage of his emotions. While pleading for compassion, he told the court that he did not have any criminal record prior to the blasts.

Qureshi, who was held guilty for receiving training in Pakistan on arms and ammunition and for parking the bomb-laden van at Plaza along with Mukadam, said, ''My house was set ablaze during the riots and I was misled and taken to Dubai on the pretext of providing me with an alternative job.'' ''From Dubai, I was taken to Pakistan and sent back to India,'' he said while contending that he could not have received training in arms and ammunition in merely four to five days -- the duration of his stay in Pakistan.

Striking a chord, Qureshi told the court that he had been an ordinary boy from a village in Nashik district before he was drawn into this conspiracy. After ''Allah'', he said, he had faith only in the TADA judge.

UNI XR MAZ RL VC1916