Yakub Memon, 1993 Mumbai serial blasts convict, was hanged until death at the Nagpur Central Jail of western Indian state of Maharashtra on Thursday morning.
Fifty-three-year-old Yakub Memon was hanged at 6.35 a.m. local time after the Indian Supreme Court dismissed his last-minute pleas for a stay on the death warrant, reported Times of India. He was declared dead shortly after the hanging.
He woke up around 3:30 a.m. local time, took a warm bath and dressed in new set of clothes provided by prison authorities, reported IANS. He offered Namaz ( prayer) and read the Holy Quran before his scheduled hanging.
Prison officials said Memon's last wish to talk his daughter was fulfilled hours before the hanging. "He was very happy and cheerful after talking to his daughter," a prison official told Hindustan Times.
Memon's dead body was handed over to his family. His body reached Mumbai where he will buried at Bada Kabristan.
Opposition Congress Member of Parliament Shashi Tharoor, in series of Tweets, opposed Memon's hanging. "We must fight against terrorism w/all the means at our command. But cold-blooded execution has never prevented a terror attack anywhere," Tharoor Tweeted.
There is no evidence that death penalty serves as a deterrent: to the contrary in fact. All it does is exact retribution: unworthy of a Govt
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) July 30, 2015
Yakub Abdul Razzak Memon was sentenced to death in 2007 as a key conspirator of serial bomb blasts that rocked India's financial capital Mumbai on March 12, 1993, according to CNN. He was among eleven Mumbai blast convicts sentenced to death. However, death sentences of other 10 prisoners commuted to life imprisonments in 2013.
