06 February 2004	Friday	14 Zilhaj 1424

LISBON, Feb 5: Portugal has agreed to extradite one of India's most wanted men, the alleged mastermind of India's most murderous bomb attack ever, news reports quoted judicial sources on Thursday as saying.

Abu Salem, who is currently serving a four-and-a-half-year jail term in Portugal for using forged documents and resisting arrest, will be sent back to India to stand trial for the March 1993 blasts that killed 250 people in Mumbai, the Publico newspaper said.

Lisbon authorities agreed to hand over Abu Salem, Publico said, after New Delhi pledged that the suspected chief gangster would face neither a death sentence nor a life term without parole.

Salem was arrested in Lisbon in Sept 2002 along with his companion, Bollywood actress Monica Bedi.-AFP