Yakub Abdul Razak Memon was executed by hanging on 30 July 2015 at 0630 IST in Nagpur jail. About 257 people were killed and over 700 injured in a series of explosions that rocked Mumbai on March 12, 1993.
He was a terrorist by choice and chartered accountant by profession. Yakub was convicted over his involvement in the 1993 Bombay bombings by Special Terrorist and Disruptive Activities court on 27 July 2007. He along with his brother, of one of the prime suspects in the bombings, Tiger Memon planned and executed the horrific mayhem.
The manner in which 24 x 7 television coverage, accorded to a man who waged war against the nation, portraying him as a victim, leaves a person like me hurt. I for one expected these opinion makers to glorify the death of Abdul Kalam instead.
Dawood was assisted in this act by Tiger Memon, one of his most trusted associates who is also believed to be hiding somewhere in Pakistan. The bombings were financed by expatriate Indian smugglers based out of the UAE.
Post December 6 demolition of the disputed structure (Babri Masjid) in Ayodhya, widespread riots gripped Mumbai. It was alleged that the police colluded with rioters in which certain minority-inhabited areas were targeted.
The planners thus managed to rope in disgruntled Muslim youths who would travel to Dubai, then to Pakistan to receive training, then come back to India to actually execute the attacks.
The lengthy and frustrating legal process it may have been. However the cases of terrorists like Ajmal Kasab and now of Yakub Memon have yet again highlighted the fairness of trial and the rule of law in India.
Unfortunately though, there was seen a trend in the commercial electronic media, human right activists, certain members of the civil society, Bollywood actors and not to miss out some of our opportunist politicians; who never blinked for once in raising a voice in support of a terrorist who 22 years ago had killed 257 innocent people.
The manner in which 24 x 7 television coverage, accorded to a man who waged war against the nation, portraying him as a victim, leaves a person like me hurt. I for one expected these opinion makers to glorify the death of Abdul Kalam instead.
Can we as a nation obstruct those who for their personal agenda wish to immortalise Yakub.
Going by the “Big data” analysis of the social media. I get a sense that there are many voices who are divided on the communal lines.
A noted Muslim commentator on the television wrote on her Face Book that “The hanging of Yakub Memon highlights state sponsored murders of Muslims”.
Another Hindu personality wrote, “Those who are sad at the hanging of Yakub may like to apply for a visa to Pakistan”. While a few sophisticated members of our society gently put it as a sad day for humanity.
The whole argument appeared to revolve around those who suffered and their perpetrators, while none talked about India, the real victim. Till such time a terrorist like the Pakistan continues to exist in its present form there will be many Dawood, Yakub Menon and Ajmal Kasabs.
Can we as a nation obstruct those who for their personal agenda wish to immortalise Yakub Abdul Razak Memon.
Please wait...
It requires proper judiciary laws in place to punish such people who support terrorists. Why people do not dare to speak in support of terrorism in other countries. A person who has sympathy for terrorist is also a terrorist. They should be charged with life time imprisonment for this.
Further the imprisonment of Terrorists and supporters should not be reformation centres, but it should be execution centre. where the inmates experience death while they are alive.
Rather than doing all this the so called secular previous leaders of Congress in india have made the jails, heaven for terrorists and their supporters for few votes of minorities. The facility the terrorists get in indian jails are better than that they get out side jail in Pakistan.
Why should not they fell good to become terrorists. Its our fault to elect such political parties previously.
Now that finally BJP have come this time, the approach towards it can be changed.
India need to speed up the judicial proceedings. He deserved to be hanged for killing hundreds if innocent.hadbeen he hanged within 5 yrs of his proceedings, there wouldnot havebeen a debate.Indeed, we are wasting money involved in keeping terorists, court proceedings and time which could be utilized for other constructive activities.
Manu Sharma, you are absolutely right. These long delays in proceedings give a chance to all the anti-nationals. If he was hanged 15 yrs ago, no one would have opened their mouths.
We are hypocrites. We want to defend the inhuman in the name of humanity, as long as the victims are not our own.
Now a big news came in the picture.our so called countrylover shashi tharoor told tat yakub was a human being.he should not be hanged.all are gossiping about him.BT abt the army jawan who was killed in the ceasefire violation by pak. today..isn’t he a human being.? #wtf such a hypocrite people..
very good article…smtym I feel to ask all these yakub’s supporters that had their own pparents, wife or small kid got killed in those blasts, wud their support still remain
This article is well appreciated from an emotional point of view.
However Sir, the entire discussion was not about mercy to Yakub in the sense of remission of his entire sentence but only about remission of the death sentence by itself.
He could have been given a lesser sentence for turning an approver and aiding investigation. He could have been incarcerated for life.
This hanging is a big setback for RAW and its adverse effects will be felt in future. The courts have done nothing wrong but they have acted in isolation and in a very narrow sense of justice. It is the executive that has failed here in sacrificing the long term interests of the nation for very short term and facile gains. Fact is, we have hanged Yakub because he was a Memon and we were frustrated at not having been able to net the real one.
I would suggest a reading of the appended article from Firstpost in this regard.
http://m.firstpost.com/politics/two-funerals-kalams-gentle-compassion-is-a-reminder-of-what-we-denied-yakub-memon-2371278.html
Sailesh’s comments are unfounded. Yakub was not hanged because he was a memon or because the real one could not be caught. Look at these facts:
Yakub controlled the money of the Memons and he arranged the logistics of the bomb blasts.
He arranged for all the tickets to escape to Dubai and himself left with his family.
He transferred a lot of the money of the Memons to out of India before the incident.
So that shows he was well aware of what was going to happen.
Sailesh said he turned approver and aided investigation. I am not sure if this happened, but if it did it was not because of change of heart, it was because he was apprehended in Nepal and brought to India and then he started aiding investigations.
There are some who say he wanted to surrender to India, we do not know if that was true or what was the reason for that. But the reason could be business or assets left behind or worse – ISI sending him back to see if he could do something worse then what he did.
Additionally, yes if we get the real Memon, he should also be hanged. We cannot be perceived as a state that does not care to do justice to its own people even if they are killed. We have to care for the life of our citizens. Terrorists should get a clear message that they risk their life if they do not respect the life of our citizens. Mumbai has suffered repeatedly, we need to protect the lives of Mumbaikar’s. Anyone not respecting the life of any citizen of India, should be aware that their life is at risk.