Bombing Bombay – 12th March 1993 Serial Bomb Blast in Mumbai

It’s been 25 years now, Mumbai experienced the most destructive serial bomb blasts which shook the whole country.

On Black Friday 12 March 1993, twelve bombs exploded within a span of two hours and ten minutes killing 257 people and over 1,400 were injured, and property worth Rs 28 crore was damaged.

The attacks were carried out in revenge for earlier riots in December 1992. The riots were the result of demolition of Babri Masjid. Mumbai which is thousands of kilometers from Ayodhya had nothing to do with the event. Being a Sunday on 6th December busy Mumbaikars were relaxing the day.  But nightmare started when in the evening news spread that the riots started in South Mumbai which later engulfed the remaining parts of Mumbai.

The serial blast in March 1993 mostly occured between 1:29 pm and 3:40 pm all activated by a timer within fifteen to thirty minutes of each other. If the locations and sequence of the blasts are mapped out, they follow a south-north trajectory: starting with a car exploding in the basement of Bombay Stock Exchange in Mumbai’s Fort area and ending with unexploded grenades being hurled at the runways of the airport in the northwest suburb of Santacruz.

The locations attacked:

• Fisherman’s Colony in Mahim causeway
• Zaveri Bazaar
• Plaza Cinema
• Century Bazaar
• Katha Bazaar
• Hotel Sea Rock
• Terminal at Sahar Airport (now Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport [CSIA])
• Air India Building
• Hotel Juhu Centaur
• Worli
• Bombay Stock Exchange Building
• Passport Office
• Masjid-Mandvi Corporation Bank Branch

The attacks were coordinated by Dawood Ibrahim, leader of the Mumbai-based international organized crime syndicate, D-Company. Ibrahim was believed to have ordered and helped organize the bombings through his subordinates Tiger Memon and Yakub Memon.

The attacks were planned by India’s most wanted crimimal, Dawood Ibrahim, who at the time was the leader of the self-styled D-Company. His younger brother Anees Ibrahim played a crucial role in planning the landing of RDX onto India’s shores. Dawood was aided by his trusted associate, Tiger Memon.

For more detailed information about the blast visit

Quint.com

Wikipedia.org