By Alishba I. Kassim
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

NEW DELHI, India -The debate over the death penalty has emerged in India after three people were found guilty for the 2003 bombing in Mumbai. During this shocking attack, over 50 people were killed and around 180 were injured. The defendants, Ashrat Ansari, Haneef Sayyed, and his wife Fahmeeda, have been sentenced to death, as Judge MR Puranik presiding over an anti-terrorist court claimed they “should be hanged by the neck until dead”.

The defendants’ lawyers will appeal the conviction; Haneef Sayyed’s counsel has reasoned that a life sentence without parole would be just and his wife’s lawyer claims that Fahmeeda unwillingy participated in the attacks due to pressure from her husband. However, the chief public prosecutor, Ujjwal Nikam, said that anything less than capital punishment would be a “mockery of justice”. Interestingly, the death penalty is not a common punishment in India, and tends to be either postponed for long periods of time or commuted.

The three defendants practice Islam, and have declared that their attacks were a response to the violence against Muslims in Gujarat the previous year. They are supposedly connected to the dreaded Lashkar-e-Tayyiba group, which conducts attacks against India in opposition to its occupation in Kashmir. The group was banned in Pakistan after 9/11, and has been held responsible for numerous acts of terrorism in India, as well as linked to the three-day attacks in Mumbai last November. Pakistan has now increased its search for those responsible for the attack, asking Interpol to step in as well. The defendants have denied all allegations about their suspected involvement with the group.

For more information, please see:

BBC – India to Execute Bomb Trio – August 6, 2009

CNN – Pakistan Launches Global Manhunt for Mumbai Suspects –    August 6, 2009 

BBC – India and the Death Penalty – August 4, 2009