By Syed Nadeem
On July 11, 2006, in just 11 horrifying minutes, Mumbai was torn apart. Seven powerful explosions ripped through local trains between 6:24 PM and 6:36 PM, killing 209 innocent people and injuring 714 others. It was one of the deadliest terror attacks India had ever seen — a meticulously planned, coordinated, and executed act of violence that shook the financial capital of the country to its core.
Now, in 2025, the Bombay High Court has acquitted all 12 accused in the case. Let that sink in: after almost two decades, not one conviction stands.
So, who will answer for this?
The Political Landscape in 2006: Who Was in Power?
At the time of the blasts, Congress and the undivided NCP ruled Maharashtra. Vilasrao Deshmukh was the Chief Minister, and R.R. Patil held the post of Home Minister.
At the Centre, the UPA government was in power. Dr. Manmohan Singh was the Prime Minister. Shivraj Patil — also from Maharashtra — was the Home Minister. Lalu Prasad Yadav was the Railway Minister.
The security apparatus included National Security Advisor M.K.Narayanan and Home Secretary V.K. Duggal — both overseeing the response to the blasts.
In short, the entire political and security framework was under the Congress party’s control.
The Investigation: Detentions, Accusations, and Coerced Confessions
Within 36 hours, 350 people were detained. Among them, many were young Muslim men — arrested on flimsy evidence, subjected to intense interrogation, and, as later reported, forced to sign blank confessions.
Mumbai Police initially cited an email from Lashkar-e-Qahhar, a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), claiming responsibility. Soon after, the Indian government pointed fingers at Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
On 21 July 2006, seven men from Bihar and Mumbai were arrested — allegedly members of SIMI, a banned organization. Yet by late 2006, all seven retracted their “confessions,” calling them fabricated and extracted under duress.
In 2008, even Home Secretary V.K. Duggal was quoted in Hindustan Times saying the same men had pretended to be Pakistanis when training other terror suspects. A comment that now, in hindsight, raises even more questions.
NSA M.K. Narayanan, in a now infamous CNN-IBN interview, admitted, “I would hesitate to say we have clinching evidence, but we have pretty good evidence.”
Pretty good? Is that the benchmark for life sentences and death penalties?
The Indian Mujahideen Twist
In 2009, a new narrative emerged. Sadiq Sheikh, a key figure in the Indian Mujahideen, confessed on a TV channel that he and his associates built the bombs in a flat in central Mumbai. They had train timetables, passes, pressure cookers — everything planned.
He even admitted to deliberately misleading investigators by falsely attributing the attack to Al-Qaeda.
By 2013, the same Sadiq Sheikh was declared a hostile witness in court.
So which version of his story are we supposed to believe?
Convictions in 2015 — And the Collapse in 2025
In September 2015, the MCOCA court convicted all 12 accused. Five were sentenced to death, and seven received life imprisonment.
Death Sentences:
- Faisal Sheikh
- Asif Khan
- Kamal Ansari
- Ehtesham Siddiqui
- Naveed Khan
Life Sentences:
- Mohammed Sajid Ansari
- Mohammed Ali
- Dr. Tanveer Ansari
- Majid Shafi
- Muzzammil Shaikh
- Sohail Shaikh
- Zamir Shaikh
Now, in July 2025, the Bombay High Court has acquitted all 12, stating, “No evidence to uphold the guilty verdicts.”
After nearly two decades of being labeled terrorists, their lives — and the lives of their families — are permanently damaged.
The Questions That Haunt Us All
This isn’t just a judicial failure. It is a systemic collapse of investigation, governance, and conscience.
Will the families of the 209 dead ever get justice? Will the real perpetrators ever be found? Who will compensate the 350 detained young Muslims whose lives were shattered? Who takes responsibility for the 12 innocent men who spent decades behind bars?
Let me remind you again: Congress was in power — both at the Centre and in Maharashtra. The arrests, the torture, the framing, the silence — all happened under your watch of Dr. Manmohan Singh.
To Rahul Gandhi and the Congress Party: Will You Apologize?
Will you, Rahul Gandhi, take moral responsibility for these wrongful arrests?
Will you tender an unconditional apology to the Muslims of India, who were vilified, targeted, and made scapegoats?
Just like Sonia Gandhi, former UPA leader and then Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh. apologised for the 1984 Sikh riots, we ask you, Rahul Gandhi:
We will keep asking this question — again and again.
Because as Indian Muslims, we demand closure.
We Are Not Terrorists. We Are Citizens.
We have seen this time and again — how the Congress party has betrayed Indian Muslims.
In case after case, lower courts convict innocent Muslims based on flimsy evidence or coerced confessions. But when these very cases reach High Courts or the Supreme Court, acquittals follow. This tells us all we need to know about the state of our police investigations, lower judiciary, and political interference.
It is a pattern — a deeply disturbing one.
The Congress has used Indian Muslims as a vote bank, but has never stood by us when it truly mattered. Not during wrongful arrests. Not during public vilification. Not even when it was in power and had every chance to deliver justice.
It is time for the Congress leadership to look within — and ask, “What kind of legacy are you leaving behind for Indian Muslims?”
The views expressed in this article are author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the policy of the platform.
