28 charged over Indian train bombings

Formal charges have been brought against 28 people for suspected involvement in the July 11 Mumbai train bombings that killed more than 200 people in western India.

Thirteen of the accused were in police custody and the rest still at large, said police prosecutor Raja Thackeray.

The 28 were charged with murder, handling explosive substances, committing terrorist acts and causing damage to public property in Mumbai, India’s economic and entertainment capital, formerly called Bombay.

If convicted, they could face the death penalty.

Police say the 28 suspects belong to Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, or the Army of the Pure, a Pakistan-based Islamic militant group, as well as the Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), a banned group based in northern India.

Police have also alleged that Pakistan’s Directorate of Inter Services Intelligence, or ISI, was behind the bombings. Pakistan has denied the accusation.

The charge sheet, running to 10,667 pages, said nine of the 15 accused at large are Pakistani nationals, according to Naval Bajaj, Mumbai’s deputy commissioner of police.

The remaining six are Indians who operate out of Pakistan and Nepal, Bajaj said.

Apart from those charged today, one suspect known only as ‘Salim’ died in the train bombing in July. Another suspect, Abu Asama, was killed in an exchange of gunfire with police in August, Bajaj said.

Prosecutors say more than 2,000 witnesses will be called during trial proceedings.