1993 blasts convict Abdul Turk was taxi driver who turned Tiger Memon aide

Before working with Memon, Turk had worked as a driver in Saudi Arabia between 1980 and 1985, and then as a taxi driver in Mumbai.

On March 12, 1993, between 1:30pm and 3:40 pm, 12 coordinated blasts exploded through Mumbai, killing 257 and injuring 713 others. At Century Bazaar, where a jeep loaded with RDX had been parked, more than 200 people were injured and 113 were killed. The man who drove the explosive-laden jeep was Abdul Ghani Ismail Turk. After parking it, Turk hailed a cab and went home to Dongri, from where he would later be arrested.

At Century Bazaar, where a jeep loaded with RDX had been parked, more than 200 people were injured and 113 were killed on March 12, 1993. (File Photo)

Turk died on Thursday in a Nagpur hospital. He was 68. In 2007, he had been sentenced to death by a special Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) court. Later, this was commuted to a life sentence.

When he had been arrested by Worli Police in 1993, Turk was 35, a resident of Dongri, father of five, and an aide of gangster Tiger Memon.

‘Black Friday’, as the 1993 blasts came to be known, was Memon’s brainchild and allegedly the gangster’s way of retaliating against the riots that erupted in Mumbai after the demolition of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, in 1992.

Before working with Memon, Turk had worked as a driver in Saudi Arabia between 1980 and 1985, and then as a taxi driver in Mumbai.

Around 1987, he started smuggling goods from Dubai and Bangkok to sell in Mumbai, and was sent to Nashik jail for eight months after being arrested under the Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act (COFEPOSA).

When he came out, Turk was hired as a driver by Memon’s office.

His job was to bring and deliver money laundered through hawala channels and he was paid a salary of ₹5,000.

Turk soon became a trusted member of Memon’s team. During the planning of the 1993 blasts, Turk helped transport RDX and arms from the Shekadi coast of Raigad district. He also helped assemble some of the vehicle bombs and was entrusted with planting the jeep outside Century Bazaar.

The trial for the 1993 blasts was conducted over 15 years.

Turk would first admit to parking the RDX-laden jeep and later retract his confession. However, the judge accepted the confession as voluntary and consistent with other evidence. While pleading for leniency in 2006, Turk had said, “I am not a terrorist and was misguided and dragged into the conspiracy by co-accused.”

Thirty-five people, including Memon, Dawood Ibrahim, Mohammed Ahmed Umar Dosa and Javed Chikna, are still wanted in the case.