Patna’s special NIA Court convicts all five accused in Bodh Gaya serial blasts

Bihar, May 25: Today all the five accused, Haider Ali alias Black Beauty, Imtiaz Ansari, Umar Siddiqui, Azharuddin Quraishi and Mujibullah Ansari, in 2013 Bodh Gaya serial blasts were convicted. A special court National Investigation Agency (NIA) Court convicted all the 5 accused of planting bombs around the Buddhist temple in Bodh Gaya. 

Judge Manoj Kumar found Haider Ali alias Black Beauty, Imtiaz Ansari, Umar Siddiqui, Azharuddin Quraishi and Mujibullah Ansari guilty of planting bombs around the Buddhist temple on July 7, 2013. The court will announce the quantum of punishment on May 31.

A Tibetan monk and a tourist were injured in the blast, which took place in the morning when a large crowd had gathered near the sacred Bodhi tree for morning prayers.

Around nine blasts within thirty minutes rocked the peaceful city of Bodh Gaya, marking the first terrorist attack on the soil of Bihar. The terrorists had planted a cylinder bomb under the Bodhi tree as well which luckily did not explode.

The NIA said terrorist organization Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) was behind the blasts.

SIMI had allegedly hatched a conspiracy to target the Buddhist site to avenge alleged killing of Rohingya Muslims by the Myanmar army.

The NIA revealed that Haider Ali, who had been radicalized by SIMI member Umar Siddiqui in Raipur, Chhattisgarh, was the mastermind of the attack. He received explosives from Raipur and came back to Bodh Gaya. After investigating the place a number of times, he entered the temple premises in the guise of a Buddhist monk.

Umar Siddiqui and Azharuddin Quraishi are natives of Chhattisgarh and the rest of the accused belong to Jharkhand.

The five convicts are also suspects in the 2013 October 23 blasts in Patna’s Gandhi Maidan, which took place while Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi was addressing a rally. Seven people had died and hundred others injured in the seven blasts which became a major political issue in the run up to 2014 general elections.