2003 Mumbai bomber on death row dies in jail

Shiv Kumar
Tribune News Service
Mumbai, February 11

Mohammad Hanif Syed, who was on death row for setting off two bombs in Mumbai in 2003 which claimed 52 lives and injured 244 others, died late Saturday night at the Nagpur Central Jail, according to home department officials of the Maharashtra government.

Officials said Syed complained of chest pain on Saturday evening after he which he was shifted to the Government Medical College where his condition worsened and he died late in the night. Officials suspected that he may have suffered a heart-attack.

Officials said Syed's body will be handed over to his family.

Syed, his wife Fehmida and a third conspirator Ashrat Ansari were found guilty of planting bombs in two taxis which exploded at the Gateway of India and Zaveri Bazaar in south Mumbai on August 25, 2003. Investigators later established that Ansari had indoctrinated Syed during his stint as an electrician in Saudi Arabia. The two had come in contact with Pakistani jihadis in Saudi Arabia from whom they learnt to assemble bombs.

The chargesheet against the trio revealed that Syed, Fehmida and their daughters Farheen (then 16) and Shakira (then four) had boarded the taxis and left behind one bag in each of the vehicles before disembarking. Farheen was later acquitted in the matter since she was a minor. Syed, Fehmida and Ansari were sentenced to death in the twin
bomb blasts cases.
Investigators had then said that it was the first time that jihadi groups like the Lashkar-e-Toiba had recruited an entire family to carry out terror attacks.