More on Indian Minorities
Yakub Hanged!
Fifty three year old Yakoob Memon convicted for the 1993 Mumbai series bomb blasts was hanged in nagpur jail today amidst heavy police arrangements.
His body was later handed over to his family in Mumbai where his last rites will be performed after postmartem at the jail hospital.
Despite last minute effort by human rights activists debating merits and demerits of execution, captial punishment, the Supreme Court special bench rejected his clemency petition and cleared grounds for his execution.
Yakub is survived by his wife and daughter. A chartered accountant by profession Yakub was a co conspirator in the Mumbai Blalst case.
Turning his clemency petition into politics, MIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi rasied the debate that since Yakub did not get political backing he did not get clemency. Ironically convicts of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and former Punjab chief minsiter Beant Singh’s killers who had committed the crime earlier than Yakoob have still escaped the noose.
Also Yakub’s brother Tiger Memon, the mastermind for the blast is on the run.
Moreso the Babri Masjid demolition and the riots that had followed in Mumbai where more than nine hundred people had been killed was termed to be the reason behind the blast in The Sri Krishna Commission report. The report had termed blasts to be a reactionary measure to avenge the riots where minorities particularly Muslims were targetted. Only three persons were convicted for the riots and none reached the noose.
It is because of these reasons many human rights activists have cried foul blaming the majoritarian mindset in the country for hanging Yakub.
