India, April 11 -- The justice system must respond with its harshest and most unflinching sanction to an act of terror, the Telangana high court asserted in its verdict that confirmed the death penalty to five Indian Mujahideen operatives convicted for executing the 2013 Dilsukhnagar twin bomb blasts in Hyderabad.

Describing their actions as "calculated savagery" and "cold-blooded conspiracy" meticulously designed "to destabilise the social order", the court's searing 357-page verdict released late on Wednesday made the case for "harshest and most unflinching sanction" available under law for such crimes.

The coordinated bombings killed 18 people and left 131 grievously injured at a bustling commercial hub in Hyderabad on February 21, 2...