Two convicted for Mumbai bombing

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A Mumbai (Bombay) court has convicted a man for conspiring with two of India's most wanted men, the main accused in the bomb blasts there in 1993.

Dawood Phanse, who is 82, has been found guilty of meeting Dawood Ibrahim and Tiger Memon in Dubai and helping with transport of arms and ammunition.

Phanse is facing a possible death sentence for the offences.

He is among 123 defendants facing trial over 12 blasts that killed 257 people and injured more than 700.

The attacks were allegedly ordered by the Muslim-dominated underworld in retaliation for Hindu-Muslim riots.

Smugglers

The court also convicted another man, Sharif Parker. He was found guilty of identifying a location for arms training, helping transport the weapons, and arranging meetings to clear the smuggled goods.

Parker was not found guilty of conspiracy since he did not know that the shipment contained arms and explosives.

According to reports, both Phanse and Parker were smugglers who normally dealt in gold and silver and worked for Dawood Ibrahim and Tiger Memon.

Eleven people have been convicted so far in connection with the blasts, including four members of one family.

Hundreds of witnesses

Verdicts are being announced in stages over the next few weeks and sentences are yet to be passed.

1993 MUMBAI BLASTS 12 blasts257 dead713 injured123 arrested and tried686 witnesses testify35,000 pages of evidence submitted13 years to reach verdict <a href="/1/hi/world/south_asia/4775531.stm" class="">Profile: Fugitive gangster </a>

The man thought to have masterminded the plot, underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, has still not been caught.

India says he and another key suspect, Tiger Memon, are hiding in Pakistan, a charge Pakistan has denied.

Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt is also among the accused.

Dutt was arrested 13 years ago on terrorism charges and spent nearly two years in jail before the Supreme Court ordered his release on bail.

There have been few trials in India's legal history to match this one.

Evidence has been taken from more than 600 witnesses.

The bombings are believed to have been carried out by one of the city's notorious underworld crime syndicates, which were then dominated by Muslims.

Their motive is said to have been revenge for religious riots that left more than 2,000 people dead across India, most of them Muslims.

Most of the accused have been languishing in jail for the past 13 years. Lawyers have criticised the length of the trial.

The case has taken so long that 12 of the accused have died and others have been imprisoned for so much longer than their likely sentence that a guilty verdict may still result in them walking free.