Mumbai, Nov. 16: The prosecution in the Best Bakery case got a shot in the arm today with Yasmin Sheikh, eyewitness and sister-in-law of Zahira Sheikh, deposing before the special court and identifying 11 of the accused.

Yasmin ? labelled ?prime witness? by the prosecution in the retrial after former ?prime witness? Zahira turned hostile ? also named four other accused who are absconding, despite the prosecution fearing that Yasmin could also turn around under pressure like Zahira. She is being examined for the first time in a court.

But Yasmin, the estranged first wife of Zahira?s brother Nafitullah ? who made headlines earlier with interviews that quoted her as saying that Zahira and her mother were fighting the case and pressuring people into being eyewitnesses to get money ? claimed that she did not make such allegations, making the case strong for the prosecution.

Earlier, reports quoted Yasmin as saying that Zahira and her mother had told her that ?if we could not give names, we would not get compensation?.

Zahira, her mother and her two brothers are expected to be present in court tomorrow as the prosecution has served them summons. A prosecution source, however, said it was more likely that one of her brothers would depose tomorrow and not Zahira.

Yasmin, who was staying with her husband?s family at the time of the carnage, told the court that on March 1, 2002, a mob came with swords and bamboo sticks and attacked the bakery.

Yasmin said she and the other family members were in an adjacent house. The mob first bolted the doors from outside and then asked those inside to come out.

When they came out, Nafitullah and three others were beaten up and her young daughter received a stone injury. She was confined to a room and the crowd threatened to molest her, Yasmin added. She was injured in the incident.

The accused Yasmin identified by name in court were Sanjay Thakkar, Pankaj Gosai, Jagdeep Rajbhar, Samabhai Baria, Shailendra Tadvi, Ravi Rajaram Chavan, Rajubhai Baria, Dinesh Rajbhar, Yasin and Haresh Desai, several of whom were also named and identified by the three eyewitnesses who have deposed earlier. Yasmin could not name one person she had identified.

Nafitullah has a second wife, who was born a Hindu. This was the reason, Yasmin was quoted as saying in an earlier report, that a Hindu mob had descended on the bakery.

Fourteen people, including members of Zahira?s family, were killed in the Best Bakery carnage following the train burning in Godhra.

During cross-examination, Yasmin denied the reported statements she allegedly made in the media and to police that were read out from photocopies by the defence.

She also denied that Zahira and her mother got her beaten up by her husband to make the statement. She said she remembered several television channels approaching her after the carnage, but did not remember if she said to the channels what was aired on them.

Yasmin told the court that Zahira and her mother asked her to go away from the bakery because her young daughter cried too much.

After the proceedings, Yasmin personally made a prayer to designated judge Abhay Thipse that her sister Shehnaaz, who lives in Chhota Udaipur, 70 km from Vadodara, was threatened with phone calls from Vadodara that she would be kidnapped if she did not disclose Yasmin?s address.

The court directed its registry to get in touch with Gujarat police to extend police protection to Shenaaz.