Convict says mob asked him to go to Pakistan or "kabristan"

Mumbai, Oct 5 (UNI) Niyaz Ahmed Shaikh, a 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts convicted by a TADA court of having received arms-training in Pakistan, today repeatedly broke down and eventually fainted in the witness box while recalling days of horror of the 1992 communal riots in the city when he had to flee home which was ransacked and looted by a mob.

Recording his statement on the quantum of sentence in the designated court of Pramod Kode who convicted him on Tuesday, Niyaz said when a mob shouted that he either go to Pakistan or ''kabirstan'' (graveyard), he fled for his life taking along his 7-year-old sister, leaving behind his mother at the mercy of mob.

When Niyaz fainted and went down on his knees in the witness box, the judge summoned a doctor to examine him. He was later taken out into the open and subsequently lodged in jail where he has been in custody for over 13 years.

He said after he was forced to flee with his sister , they took shelter in a friend's house from where he was taken out by police three days later and a murder charge was slapped against him in connection with the killing of one Ghulab in the 1992-93 riots.

Subsequently, he was released by police following the intervention of some social organisations, friends and his mother.

Stating he could not continue his studies beyond 12th class because of poverty unmarried Niyaz, in his late thirties, pleaded for leniency, saying he had already been in custody for thirteen-and-a-half years and has the responsibility to marry off his sister and look after his mother.

Without denying his involvement in the terror crime that killed 257 people, Niyaz , however, said it was a bad incident and he prayed to God it should not recur. '' I am an Indian ... not a terrorist ..... I have no criminal past ... I promise not to indulge in any criminal activity,'' Niyaz said.

Besides the arms-training in Pakistan, he was also found guilty of having participated in conspiracy meetings, surveying terror targets such as the Bombay Stock Exchange and Brihan-Mumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). He has been convicted under section 3(3) of Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act and section 120-B ( criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.

UNI XR SA AK KN2018