Srinagar: Hurriyat Conference (G) expressed deep sorrow over the hanging of Yakub Memon and said that by rejecting his mercy petition the communal government of India has once again confirmed their anti-Muslim attitude.
Spokesman of the Hurriyat (G) Ayaz Akbar said, “If Indian judiciary is providing justice on the basis of equality, then the criminals involved in the bloodshed of Samjhauta Express, Mecca Masjid and Malegaon blasts and Gujarat like incidents should also be hanged and the secular tag of this country should be protected by punishing the culprits involved in the coldblooded murder of thousands of innocent people in these terrorist activities. “
He also said that “the hanging of the Yakub Mamon has reopened the wounds of the Kashmiri nation and today the memories of the Mohammad Maqbool Bhat and Mohammad Afzal Gooru are badly striking our hearts and minds who were hanged for no crime and whose dead bodies too were denied to their families.”
“Yakub Memon had himself returned to India from Dubai and surrendered before the government and had cooperated in the investigation of the Mumbai blasts in an assurance that he will be forgiven for anything. If anything like morality or ethics would have been present in the policy makers of New Delhi, then they would not have rejected the mercy petition of the Yakub Memon in any way”.
The Hurriyat (G) spokesman said that the “secular and democratic claims of India are getting badly exposed day by day and this country is on its way to become a Hindu Rashtra.”
Memon was sent to the gallows today on his 53rd birthday inside Nagpur Central jail for his role in the country’s deadliest bomb attacks that killed at least 257 people in Mumbai in 1993.
However Amnesty International India today said that the execution of Yakub Memon marks another disheartening use of the death penalty in India,
Yakub was sentenced under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (TADA) Act, a law that contained provisions incompatible with international fair trial standards, Amnesty India said.
“This morning, the Indian government essentially killed a man in cold blood to show that killing is wrong,” said Aakar Patel, Executive Director, Amnesty International India.