Vadodara: Bilkis Bano and her family have expressed relief at the Bombay high court upholding life term for 11 persons accused of raping her and massacring her eight family members on Thursday. However, the family plans to continue its legal fight to ensure that the three accused — Sailesh Bhatt, Jaswant Nai and Govind Nai — are given death penalty.Bilkis and her family members were trying to escape communal violence that had broken in Randhikpur village of Dahod district following the Sabarmati Express carnage when they were attacked by a mob on March 3. The mob killed eight persons including Bilkis' two-year-old daughter while six had gone missing. Bilkis who was pregnant at that time was gang raped by the accused.Commenting on the judgement, Bilkis told TOI that she was happy and thankful to the court. But she added that they would continue to fight for stricter punishment for three accused in the case. The prosecution had demanded death penalty for these three accused. "If needed, we will move Supreme Court to demand capital punishment," Bilkis said.Even today, the family has not returned to its native village Randhikpur where the horrific crime happened. "I have never been to the village barring once when television crew took me there," Bilkis said.Bilkis' husband Yakub Rasool said that they did not go to Randhikpur as they did not feel safe. "The accused keep coming to the village whenever they get parole," he said.Yakub also expressed satisfaction at the fact that policemen and doctors who had tried to cover up the case, but were acquitted by the trial court were also convicted in the judgement.The family has been staying at various places including Godhra, Devgadh Baria and Vadodara after the incident. Yakub said that they had moved to Devgadh Baria from Vadodara about six months back. "I am now trying to set up a business here but things are difficult right now," he said.

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