By Mubasshir Mushtaq and Shazia Yousuf
MUMBAI, India
India on Thursday reacted strongly to the hanging of the lone convict for the 1993 Mumbai bombings, which killed more than 250 people.
Many celebrated the execution, saying Yakub Memon was given a fair trial and repeated opportunities to appeal during his 20 years in jail.
Others however believed that the hanging could have been avoided, despite the Supreme Court holding a special hearing past midnight Wednesday to hear a plea by Memon, who claimed to have “surrendered” to authorities clear his name and expose the role Pakistan allegedly played in the bombings.
“I still believe the hanging could have been avoided. I would not blame judiciary because the court gives verdict on the basis of documentary evidence placed before it,” Shahid Nadeem, a Mumbai-based lawyer of Jamiat-e-Ulema, a prominent Muslim social organization told Anadolu Agency on Thursday.
He said the hanging amounted to “betrayal” to a man who helped India establish the alleged role of Pakistan in the bombings. Memon was found guilty of providing support for the bombings but always denied having any knowledge of the plot, allegedly carried out by his older brother.
Rakesh Sharma, an independent filmmaker who made a documentary on 2002 inter-communal riots, said there were several important issues left unanswered.
"His handler, a senior RAW officer, B Raman has confirmed that Yakub surrendered... and co-operated with intelligence agencies, providing them conclusive proof of Pakistani involvement," said Sharma. "Did the Indian State make a deal and renege? What message does it send out -- don’t become an informer, even if you co-operate, you’ll be hanged?"
Thousands of people, mainly Muslims, gathered as Memon’s body was brought in a wooden casket wrapped in a black cloth for his funeral on Thursday evening.
People lined up on the street opposite Memon's home to perform the funeral prayer as hundreds of policemen stood guard, including Mumbai Police commissioner Rakesh Maria, who was instrumental in the early stages of the investigation.
After the funeral prayer, Memon was buried amid tight security in a Muslim cemetery in South Mumbai, with close to 35,000 policemen put on the streets of the country’s financial capital.
There was also anger in the Muslim-majority Indian-held Kashmir where many drew comparisons between the last hanging in 2013, of former Kashmiri militant Afzal Guru who was executed despite concerns about a lack of evidence against him.
"Yaqub’s Memon’s hanging has renewed the wounds on the psyche of the Kashmiri nation as it again becomes clear what the Indian judiciary and state is all about. If this was about justice, where is the justice to the thousands of Muslims who were killed in Gujarat riots, in Mecca Masjid bomb blasts and scores of riots where Muslims were butchered?" Kashmiri pro-independence leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani said.
Another Kashmiri leader, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, also claimed that Memon and Guru's hangings were "selective killings and the Indian state is following double standards in handing out punishments and executions.”
On social media however, some analysts praised how Narendra Modi government, unlike its predecessor, swiftly acted to send the convict to the gallows.
The Congress party-led previous federal government sat over the mercy plea of three convicts in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi for 11 long years, forcing the Supreme Court to commute their death penalties into life imprisonment.
“Go Yakub now, you were a diabolical Indian. And tell your maker you helped kill 257 Indians, yet fellow so many Indians fought for your life tonight,” Shekhar Gupta, a senior TV commentator tweeted Thursday morning.
Swapan Dasgupta, a right-wing ideologue tweeted: “Alas, most of those who stood up for Yakub believe Mumbai blasts were justified by 1993 context. Points of law were just expedient extras.”
