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Regular-article-logo Sunday, 06 July 2025

MUMBAI BLAST ACCUSED TO FIGHT POLLS 

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FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT Published 31.08.01, 12:00 AM
Mumbai, Aug. 31 :    Mumbai, Aug. 31:  It's the Muslim League's tit for the BJP's tat. In the forthcoming Mumbai municipal corporation elections, the Indian Union Muslim League will field 10 candidates who are accused in the 1993 blasts. 'Why can't the Mumbai blasts accused fight elections, especially when BJP leaders like L.K. Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi contested the Lok Sabha elections and became Union ministers despite being accused in the Babri mosque demolition case,' Muslim League president Mohammad Faruque Azam said. He said the party had already 'chosen' the candidates, held under Tada, from a total of 136 accused in the case. 'They have all agreed to contest as Muslim League candidates for the February elections,' he said, adding that the party would announce the names on September 15. Criminal lawyers said the accused were not legally barred from contesting elections, but warned that the League's attempt could trigger tension in the city, where more than 200 people were killed in a series of bomb blasts on March 12, 1993. Police said the bombs were planted by Karachi-based mobster Dawood Ibrahim with the help of his confidant, Tiger Memon, who fled the country in the wake of the explosions. Of the 136 accused, 103 are out on bail. A total of 33 accused, including eight members of the Memon family, are in jail awaiting trial. The BJP slammed the League's decision as 'anti-national'. The party's Mumbai president, Vinod Tawde, accused the League of trying to 'make a hero of the cold-blooded killers'. He accused the League of trying to 'buy the sympathy of anti-Indian members' of the minority community.    
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