India executes 1993 Mumbai bomber

It seems the main opposition Congress is divided over the death sentence to the 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts convict Yakub Memon.

“Yes, Yakub was hanged at Nagpur central jail at 7.00 am sharp”, said chief minister Devendra Fadnavis as high alert was sounded across the nation.

“Staying of Memon’s death warrant, issued by a lower court on April 30, would be travesty of justice”, the court said, while rejecting his appeal around 5 a.m. local time after a two-hour hearing, paving the way for his hanging as scheduled.

Security was tightened near the targets in Mumbai on Thursday.

They were believed to have been staged by Mumbai’s Muslim-dominated underworld in retaliation for anti-Muslim violence that had killed more than 1,000 people a few months earlier.

Memon was convicted in 2007 of helping raise funds for the blasts that struck the Bombay Stock Exchange, Air India offices, a state transport office, three hotels, a gas station and a movie theater over two hours on March 12, 1993. His petition to the President sought mercy; in the Supreme Court, his lawyers argued that judges had not followed due process when upholding his death sentence earlier this week.

Police consider Memo’s brother, “Tiger” Memon, and mafia don Dawood Ibrahim to be the masterminds behind the attacks, intended to avenge the destruction of an ancient mosque by Hindu zealots in 1992.

A Chartered Accountant by profession, 53-year-old Yakub always kept aloof from the other accused, but on the day of judgement he could not control his emotions and shouted that he was not responsible for the bomb blasts.

Indian President Pranab Mukherjee had reportedly rejected Memon’s mercy plea late Wednesday, following which his lawyers moved the Supreme Court to request that Memon’s execution be postponed by 14 days. India needs to strengthen their law and order and forget about the execution.

Memon’s execution would be India’s fourth in the last 15 years.

On November 21, 2012, Ajmal Kasab, the only terrorist to have survived the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, was hanged in Pune’s Yerwada Jail. Ten of the 100 convicts were sentenced to death by the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act court in 2006, but their sentences were later commuted to life imprisonment.

Rights group Amnesty global called the hanging “another disheartening use of the death penalty in India”.

The country has hanged four people in the last 16 years, although three of those executions have taken place since 2012.

The court was told that Memon wanted to challenged the president’s decision to reject his mercy petition in which he has raised fresh grounds including his mental health related to his schizophrenia.