Exactly 30 years ago, on this day, a series of bomb blasts ripped through Mumbai, leaving 257 dead and more than 800 seriously injured. It was also the first time that Mumbai—then Bombay, witnessed a terror attack in the form of serial bomb blasts, changing the Mumbai Police’s perception of terror forever. It was a watershed moment for the city, dwarfed only by the 26/11 terror attacks of 2008, which once again altered the perception of terror attacks for Mumbai. Three decades down the line, however, the survivors of the horrific attack still await the compensation that is owed to them.

On March 12, 1993, a total of 12 bombs exploded at key locations in Mumbai, including the Bombay Stock Exchange and the Air India building. Investigators would go on to unearth a deadly conspiracy that originated in a meeting held in Dubai shortly after the riots of 1992-93. The meeting was the outcome of Tehreek-e-Inteqam (movement for justice), a movement that was the crystallisation of the anger that resonated within the Muslim community in Asia in the wake of the demolition of the Babri Masjid. The Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) was quick to capitalise on this anger and roped in wanted fugitive Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar, who had fled to Pakistan by then, to provide logistical support for the blasts.