Special Judge Y D Shinde directed the jail authorities to physically produce all the 13 accused, involved in the 7/11 Mumbai serial train blasts, on June 14.

In view of security considerations, all the accused, facing the charges under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), IPC, Railway Act and other Acts were produced before Judge Shinde through video conferencing as the trial re-started today, nearly four years after the attack that was bigger than 26/11 in terms of human casualties.

None of their lawyers were present in the court.

On being asked by Judge Shinde, they sought time for appointing lawyers, upon which the court asked them to engage them before the next date of hearing.

The Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), which probed the entire case, has taken the services of eminent criminal lawyer Raja Thakre as special public prosecutor. He was present in the court.

Over 400 witnesses, mostly suburban train commuters who survived the blasts, are expected to depose before the court, besides the police officials.

As per tentative indications, the trial could take around two years to complete. The 7/11 terror attack was not only the worst-ever on any metropolitan city but also one of the most heinous attacks on an urban transportation system anywhere in the world.

The trial commenced two years ago and one witness had deposed before the court. However, some of the accused in the case had challenged the validity of trying them under the stringent provisions of MCOCA.

Accordingly, the Supreme Court stayed the trial till Feb 29, 2008. Last month on April 25, the apex court rejected the petition of the accused, challenging the validity of MCOCA, allowing the trial to begin.

On July 11, 2006 in a matter of around 12 minutes, the accused set off seven bombs in heavily crowded Western Railway suburban trains on the Churchgate-Borivli-Virar sector during the evening peak hours.

The bombs were inconspicuously planted in the gents first class compartments and the victims were mostly office goers, businessmen, government servants and college students.

The blasts were executed with pinpoint precision by the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) with the active ground support of activists of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI).

UNI