Tributes paid to victims on Hyderabad blasts' 7th anniversary

Tributes were paid to victims of twin bomb blasts at Dilsukhnagar here to mark the seventh anniversary of the terror attack.

Locals offered floral tributes to 18 people killed in the near simultaneous blasts in the major business centre on February 21, 2013.

The dead included an unborn child in mother's womb. As many as 131 people were also injured in the blasts that occurred in the peak evening hour near a bus stop and a roadside eatery.

The families of the victims are still waiting for justice. They demanded that the perpetrators be hanged without further delay.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) had blamed the banned Indian Mujahideen (IM) for the blasts.

A special NIA court in November 2016 sentenced to death five convicts, including IM co-founder Yaseen Bhatkal and a Pakistani national.

Bhatkal alias Ahmed Siddibappa Zaraar, Pakistani national Zia ur Rehman alias Waqas, Asadullah Akhtar alias Haddi, Tahseen Akhtar alias Monu, and Aizaz Saeed Shaik alias Aijaz Shaikh were convicted by the court for offences including waging war against the nation, criminal conspiracy and murder. All of them are currently lodged in Cherlapally Jail here.

Prime accused and IM founder Mohammed Riyaz alias Riyaz Bhatkal is still at large and is believed to be operating from Pakistan. - IANS