A special court hearing the serial bomb blast case of 1998 on Thursday awarded punishments to another 30 Al Umma activists. Of them, nine got life term, 13 got 13 years rigorous imprisonment, six got terms ranging from upto ten years and two were sentenced up to seven years. All sentences will run concurrently.

With this, the number of persons sentenced to life, some of them to multiple life terms, has gone up to 40. On Wednesday, the court ordered life imprisonment to 31, including Al Umma founder S A Basha, his son Siddique Ali, his nephew and general secretary Mohammed Ansari and his brother Nawab Khan, holding them guilty of setting off a series of bomb blasts as part of a conspiracy to avenge the death of 17 Muslims during riots in November 1997 and assassinating BJP leader L K Advani during his visit to the city.

Four others, who were to launch a suicide attack on Mr Advani were given 10 years RI. They were released on Wednesday evening as they had already spent a little over nine years in jail as under-trials.

This leaves five more to be sentenced, besides approver Riaz-ul-Rahman, an explosives dealer in Mysore. The judgment will be pronounced on Friday.  In all, 166 persons were arraigned. All but eight were found guilty. Kerala People’s Democratic Party leader Abdul Nasser Madani. was acquited too.