Non-fatal injuries 50 Location Mumbai Attack type Bomb | Start date December 2, 2002 Total number of deaths 2 | |
Similar 2007 Uttar Pradesh bombings, Rafiganj train wreck, 2014 Chhattisgarh attack, 25 August 2003 Mumbai b, Kurnool train crash | ||
At 18:45 IST on Monday, 2 December 2002, a bomb placed under a seat of a B.E.S.T. bus exploded near the busy Ghatkopar station. The bomb was placed in the rear of a bus near the station and killed two people and injured over 50. Ghatkopar being the final stop, all the passengers in the bus had just alighted and passengers for the return trip had not yet entered the bus. The people who were killed were those present in the busy station area. The blast occurred four days prior to December 6, which marks the tenth anniversary of the demolition of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya.
Later, the police defused an unexploded bomb from another BEST bus in SEEPZ industrial area at Andheri.
The convicts in the 25 August 2003 Mumbai bombings, the twin bomb blasts in Zaveri Bazaar and Gateway of India also confessed to planting the unexploded bomb in the bus in SEEPZ area in suburban Mumbai.
The police arrested several young men for the blast. All were acquitted in the subsequent trial. One of the arrested Khwaja Yunus, allegedly escaped from the police custody. Now it is held that Khwaja Yunus died in police custody of torture. The accused policemen are being tried in a fast track court.
This was the first in a series of five bombings against the city within a period of less than nine months. Other bombings included: