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  • hyderabad twin blasts
    People place candles on the boundary wall after participating in a memorial for the victims of the twin bombings near one of the blast sites at Lumbini Park in Hyderabad, 26 August 2007. Indian security forces launched a manhunt for those behind twin bombings in the southern city of Hyderabad that killed 40 people. More than 50 others were injured in the blasts late 25 August, which ripped through a packed street restaurant in this mixed Hindu-Muslim city and an amusement park auditorium where hundreds were watching a sound and light show.DIBYANGSHU SARKAR/AFP/Getty Images
  • hyderabad twin blasts
    A Indian policeman walks past the fenced Gokul Chat eatery, the site of a 25 August bomb blast, in Hyderabad, 27 August 2007. one of the bomb blast site Gokul Chat in Hyderabad, 27 August 2007. Right-wing Hindu nationalists 27 August accused Indian authorities of a 'soft approach on terrorism' after twin weekend bomb blasts that killed 42 people in the southern city of Hyderabad. DIBYANGSHU SARKAR/AFP/Getty Images

A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court on Tuesday (September 4) convicted two people for the 2007 twin bomb blasts case. The verdict comes 11 years after the twin blasts at Gokul Chat and Lumbini Park in Hyderabad, which had killed 44 people and left 68 injured.

The first blast took place during a laser show in the auditorium at Lumbini Park at around 7.45 pm on August 25. It led to the death of around 10 people. After five minutes another blast rocked the city after a bomb exploded in at Gokul Chat eatery in Koti.

That same night, another major terror attack was averted after the cops recovered an unexploded bomb from Dilsukhnagar.

The quantum of punishment for the two convicted men Aneeq Shafeeq Sayeed and Mohammed Akbar Ismail Chaudhary, will be announced on Monday (September 10).

The Hyderabad local court has also acquitted Farooq Sharfuddin Tarkash and Mohammed Sadiq Israr Ahmed Shaik. The verdict of the fifth accused man named Tarik Anjum will be announced on Monday. All the five accused, who are reportedly Indian Mujahideen operatives, have been lodged at the Cherlapalli Central Prison for the past few years after they were arrested in relation to the two blasts in 2008.

The five aforementioned men had been charged under section 302 (murder) and other relevant provisions of the IPC and sections of Explosive Substances Act in the twin blasts.

hyderabad twin blasts
Indian policemen stand guard outside the Lumbini Park, the site of a 25 August bomb blast, in Hyderabad, 27 August 2007. A strike called by right-wing Hindu nationalists kept many people off work and shut schools 27 August after twin bomb blasts blamed on Islamic militants killed 42 civilians in this Indian city.NOAH SEELAM/AFP/Getty Images

Earlier the verdict was supposed to be announced on August 27, but was second Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge T Srinivas Rao had postponed the judgement to Tuesday.

The prosecution has said that Aneeq Shafique Sayeed had allegedly planted the bomb at Lumbini Park while Riyaz Bhatkal, who is still absconding, planted the bomb at Gokul Chat. The second convicted man Ismail Chowdhari had planted the unexploded bomb at Dilsukhnagar.