Tributes paid to 2007 Hyderabad twin blasts victims

Hyderabad, Aug 25 (IANS) Hyderabad on Thursday paid tributes to those who lost their lives in the twin bomb blasts at Gokul Chat and Lumbini Park 15 years ago.

Leaders of various political parties and some survivors of the blasts paid tributes to 42 persons who had lost their lives in the near simultaneous blasts on this day in 2007.

People paid floral tributes to the victims at Gokul Chat, the popular eatery in Koti area. The survivors again demanded that the guilty be hanged without any further delay.

Two powerful explosions had ripped through the popular eatery and an open-air theatre at Lumbini Park, near the state secretariat, on August 25, 2007, killing 42 people and wounding 68 others.

While 32 people were killed at Gokul Chat, 10 persons lost their lives at Lumbini Park, in the blasts that occured at around 7.45 p.m. that day.

An unexploded bomb was also found under a foot-over-bridge at Dilsukhnagar.

The case was initially investigated by the Andhra Pradesh Police. Following the bifurcation of the state, it was handed over to the Counter Intelligence (CI) wing of Telangana Police.

In 2018, a special court had sentenced two convicts to death and a third to life sentence. Three other accused, including Indian Mujahideen (IM) chief Riyaz Bhatkal and his brother Iqbal Bhatkal, are still at large.

Anique Shafiq Syed and Akbar Ismail Choudhary, the alleged IM operatives, were sentenced to death in connection with the case, while a third convict, Tariq Anjum, was awarded life sentence.

Two other accused, Farooq Sharfuddin and Sadiq Ahmed Sheikh, were acquitted for lack of evidence.