The Bowbazaar bomb blast was an explosion which occurred in the central business district of
Bowbazar
Bowbazar ( bn, বৌবাজার, also spelt ''Boubazar''; formerly known as Bahubazar) is a neighbourhood of Central Kolkata, in Kolkata district in the Indian state of West Bengal.
History
On Lt. Col. Mark Wood's map of 1784, the portion o ...
,
Calcutta
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...
,
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
on the night of 16 March 1993. In total, it claimed the lives of 69 people.
Background
In 1993, Mohammed Rashid Khan ran gambling establishments in the Bowbazaar area and had a workshop above his office where he made small bombs. He began stockpiling explosives. Preparations were made secretly until, on the night of 16 March, the entire stockpile blew up accidentally. If the blast had occurred in the daytime, the death toll would have been much higher. According to some witnesses, the sound of the blast could be heard 3 miles away.
Aftermath
Khan and five others were sentenced to life imprisonment in 2001 by the
Calcutta High Court
The Calcutta High Court is the oldest High Court in India. It is located in B.B.D. Bagh, Kolkata, West Bengal. It has jurisdiction over the state of West Bengal and the Union Territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The High Court buildi ...
under the
Terrorist And Disruptive (Prevention) Act (TADA).
See also
*
1993 Bombay Bombings
The 1993 Bombay bombings were a series of 12 terrorist bombings that took place in Bombay, Maharashtra, on 12 March 1993. The single-day attacks resulted in 257 fatalities and 1,400 injuries. The attacks were coordinated by Dawood Ibrahim, le ...
*
2002 attack on American cultural centre in Kolkata
References
Crime in Kolkata
Terrorist incidents in India in 1993
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