I/III. http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/in-quiet-grief-hundreds-turn-up-crowd-chorus-is-naarebazi-nahin/
Yakub Memon Hanging: In quiet grief, hundreds turn up, crowd chorus is naarebazi nahin Five hundred men had been taken into preventive detention since Wednesday night. Senior police officers tracked social media for the briefest hint of anger. Tight security at the Marine line station during the funeral of Yakub Memon which was brought to Badie Kabristan, Marine lines on Thursday. (Express photo by Dilip Kagda) As nearly 8,000 Muslims from across Mumbai gathered to offer namaz for Yakub Memon, Nagpada resident Tariq Shaikh stood outside the 8-acre burial ground opposite the Marine Lines railway station, wondering what this crowd and its uneasy calm meant for the city. At 5 pm, several hundred mourners emerged from the cemetery, hoping to catch a train home or drive into the suburbs before rush-hour. Tariq’s eyes were hurting. Through the night, he had watched TV news channels, and then taken a taxi to Marine Lines with his neighbours. YAKUB MEMON HANGING Mourners wished to see Yakub Memon's face, police said no And they hanged Yakub Memon 1993 blasts case not over for public prosecutor Nikam Last-minute change of plans, confusion at airport Before the burial: Police have a word of praise for dargah trust Others came from much farther — Kurla, Malad, Jogeshwari, Mumbra, Kalyan. With WhatsApp messages on the venue and time of the last rites doing the rounds, complete strangers came to mourn for Yakub. Some took the local train, others on motorcycles and in cars. Parking their vehicles outside the Islam Gymkhana along Marine Drive, they walked the short distance across railway foot overbridges to the Bada Qabrastan. “I’ve worked here for 30 years. Aisa manzar pehle nahin dekha (never seen such a sight before),” Mushtaq Phoolwala, the lone florist inside Bada Qabrastan, said. The burial ground houses the graves of several notables, but nobody could recall such a sea of mourners in recent years. For that matter, nobody remembered such meticulous security measures here either — the last time there was heavy police presence at the cemetery was in July 2014 when Dawood Ibrahim’s sister Haseena Parkar died. Thursday’s numbers outstripped everything — 7,500 policemen between Churchgate and Charni Road, the Rapid Action Force, an armoured riot-control truck equipped with a multi-barrel launcher for rubber pellets or tear gas shells, tear smoke munitions in innocuous white boxes slung across constables’ shoulders, and the city’s top police officers personally supervising the arrangements. Five hundred men had been taken into preventive detention since Wednesday night. Senior police officers tracked social media for the briefest hint of anger. Standing outside the rear entrance to the burial ground with Joint Commissioners of Police Deven Bharti and Milind Bharambe, Commissioner of Police Rakesh Maria agreed that community leaders who had promised that there would be no rabble-rousing had kept their word. Inside the burial ground too, through the sweltering wait for the body to arrive, men continue to keep vigil among their own: “Koi naarebaazi nahin karega (no slogan shouting).” Long before the body arrived, constables and riot control policemen stood guard on Maharshi Karve Road, removing photojournalists from vantage points and setting up barricades. By 4 pm, when the hearse came speeding down the road escorted by a police vehicle, there were at least 700 policemen on the 200-metre stretch. Thousands had gathered for the first namaz-e-janaaza at the Mahim dargah a few hours ago. And as many were expected here. As the body was brought in, mourners gathered around the unfinished grave, hoping to catch a glimpse of Yakub’s face. They formed a human chain as his brother Suleman arrived, followed by cousin Usman. At least 5,000 men were now standing around the grave, disciplined and sombre as loudspeakers blared out instructions for the funeral prayers. Family members and well-wishers reminded people to keep reciting the Durood Shareef. By 4.30 pm, the funeral prayers ended. Shrouded in a green chaddar with flower patterns sewn on it, the body was brought to the grave by the crowd, people taking turns to shoulder the janaaza. The corner grave had been dug only Thursday morning, after news of the execution was confirmed. Yakub was laid to rest next to his father, Abdul Razzak Memon, who passed away in 2001. The Bada Qabrastan used to allot plots to families, but that practice stopped eight years ago owing to space crunch. The Memons occupy a 100-sq ft area in the cemetery — it includes the grave of Yakub’s uncle. Florist Mushtaq said six huge caskets of rose petals, each for Rs 500, were ordered along with a rose-knit chaddar that cost Rs 10,000. “These petals are larger. They are from Sangli,” he said. The burial over, volunteers asked mourners to clear the narrow back lane. That’s when Mohammed Shoaib, in his twenties, spotted the Commissioner of Police, standing a short distance from the row of RAF personnel. His T-shirt damp and sweat streaming down his face, Shoaib, an advisor with a digital services major, walked up to Rakesh Maria, and handed him two red roses, the stems missing. “Want to thank you for the arrangements and the peace, sir.” The others on their way out too stopped to introduce themselves — “neighbours” from a Mahim building not far from the Memon home, college students from Mumbra, Dongri residents who said they had been discussing the 1993 riots, maulvis and community leaders, mohalla committee members. Inside, the Memons were accepting condolences. Suleman sat close to the grave with his son and other family members. “Whatever happened was god’s will. We can only pray for his salvation now,” he told The Indian Express. Outside, Tariq Shaikh and his friends hailed a taxi. Shaikh was still shaking his head: “The blast victims are calling it justice. But look at Bada Qabrastan, and tell me if this looks like closure. Or, the start of something.” (Inputs from Zeeshan Shaikh) II/III. http://www.telegraphindia.com/1150730/jsp/frontpage/story_34460.jsp#.VbntmY8oAXl.facebook What about us, ask Bombay riot victims Ananya Sengupta New Delhi, July 29: The bullet had slammed into Farooque Mapkar in 1993 while he was praying in Bombay. Mapkar, 47, had suffered the gunshot wound two months before the Bombay blasts — during the post-Ayodhya riots in which 900 people were killed in the financial capital of the country. Amid claims of “justice” and “closure” for the families of the 257 people who were ki-l-l-ed in the March 12 Bombay bl--asts, some of the victims of the January riots ask why 15,000 pages of evidence are not eno-ugh to convict the rioters. “Justice in terror cases in India is of two types. If the victims are predominantly Hindus, then there is popular discourse and outrage, and justice is at least seen to be served. If they are not, then justice is delayed and denied,” said Mapkar who was hit while praying at Hari Masjid in Mumbai’s Andheri East. Mapkar, who works in a cooperative bank, wondered why there is no discussion on the riots despite the Justice B.N. Srikrishna Commission report linking the three most tumultuous events in the 1990s: the demolition of the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992, the communal clashes of 1992 and 1993 and the Bombay blasts of 1993. “One common link (between the riots and the blasts) appears to be that the former appear to have been a causative factor for the latter. The serial bomb blasts were a reaction to the totality of events at Ayodhya and Bombay in December 1992 and January 1993. The resentment against the government and police among a large body of Muslim youth was exploited by the Pakistan-aided anti-national elements. They were brainwashed into taking revenge, and a conspiracy was hatched and implemented at the instance of Dawood Ibrahim,” the report submitted in 1998 had stated. Out of the 900 dead in the Bombay riots, 575 were Muslim and 275 Hindu, while 50 were from other communities. Only three convictions took place in the riot cases. In 2008, a Mumbai court sentenced former Shiv Sena MP Madhukar Sarpotdar and two party activists to a year’s rigorous imprisonment. Sarpotdar was immediately granted bail and he died in 2010 without serving his sentence. Mapkar and his team of lawyers continue to seek justice as they challenge a CBI closure report on the Hari Masjid case, which acquitted the police, including sub-inspector Nikhil Kapse, who was indicted by the Srikrishna Commission. “This (Memon) is a man who brought huge amount of evidence to investigators against the blast accused, he is being hanged. There was enough evidence from eyewitness accounts to show Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray’s complicity in the riots and the role of police officers, but nothing happened to them. He was and remains a hero. Some of the police officers got promoted. It suits governments to play politics and use these cases for political gains,” said Mapkar. The Srikrishna Commission report had come down hard on the late Thackeray. “From January 8, 1993, at least,” the commission said, “there is no doubt that the Shiv Sena and Shiv Sainiks took the lead in organising attacks on Muslims and their properties under the guidance of several leaders from the level of shakha pramukh to that of Sena chief Bal Thackeray.” Relying on eyewitness acc-ounts, the commission desc-r-i-bed Thackeray as the “veteran general commanding his loyal Shiv Sainiks to retaliate….” The commission was disbanded by the Sena-led government in January 1996. It was later reconstituted on public demand. The commission had also observed that the “clashes and minor cases of rioting” which took place along the route of BJP leader L.K. Advani’s rath yatra were “the distant thunderclaps portending the storm to come”. The commission noted that some of the speeches and slogans and meetings organised by the BJP from or about July 1992 as part of the Ayodhya temple campaign were “downright communal, warning the Muslims that dissent on the Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute would be an act of treachery for which the Muslims would be banished from the country. Slogans like ‘mandir wahin banayenge’ (we will build the temple there itself) and ‘is desh mein rehna hoga, to Vande Mataram kehna hoga’ (You must utter Vande Mataram if you are to live in this country) rent the air.” Shakil Ahmed was 22 when the hutments of Sion Koliwada, where he had been brought up, were burned down by rioters. “The Justice Srikrishna report has been completely ignored by successive governments. There has been no proper compensation and almost 60 per cent of the cases have been closed by the state, despite eyewitness accounts given to the committee. The witnesses had spoken of the involvement of policemen, Shiv Sainiks and senior politicians,” Shakil said. Listing the cause of death of the 900 people, the commission mentioned police firing, stabbing, arson, mob action and “private firing”. The injured numbered 2,036. In all, the commission recorded depositions of 502 witnesses, running into 9,655 pages. Along with exhibits of 2,903 documents, the pages totalled 15,000. “It was mayhem on the streets. I remember how an entire timber mart was burnt down. Yet, the mob was careful to keep a temple nearby safe from the flames. It was simple calculation — math in its purest form — to make the minority community suffer,” said Ahmed, who is also a lawyer. The Srikrishna committee report noted that it found no evidence that any Muslim organisation was responsible for the riots. It held Hindu groups responsible for inciting the mobs. “There is no material on record,” the commission said “that even during this phase any known Muslim individuals or organisations were responsible for the riots”, though several individual Muslims and Muslim criminal elements “appear to have indulged in violence, looting, arson and rioting”. The commission mentioned “insensitive and harsh” handling by the police of the mobs, “which initially were not violent”. The commission also noted that several incidents of violence took place between December 15, 1992, and January 5, 1993. But it was on January 6 that large-scale rioting and violence resumed — “brought to fever pitch by communally inciting propaganda unleashed by Hindu communal organisations and writings in newspapers like Saamna (the Shiv Sena’s mouthpiece)…”, the commission said. Taheer Wagle, the father of 16-year-old Shahnawaz who was allegedly shot dead by policemen during the riots and whose case in pending in the Supreme Court for the past 17 years, said Memon seemed “guilty only by association”. “If Memon is guilty, so are so many others in the riots case. I don’t know if I am suffering because I am a Muslim — there were Hindus who died in the riots too. It just suits governments to target us. It is unfortunate. But I don’t want to get into this debate, I just want my case to be transferred to Mumbai as I cannot go to Delhi to fight it in the Supreme Court,” Wagle said. III. http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/impending-execution-brings-mixed-feelings-india-32752648?singlePage=true India Execution Brings out Mixed Feelings on Punishment NEW DELHI — Jul 29, 2015, 10:08 PM ET By NIRMALA GEORGE Associated Press In this July 27, 2015, photo, activists of the Social Democratic Party of India carry placards with portraits of Yakub Abdul Razak Memon, convicted in the 1993 Mumbai bombings, during a protest against his death sentence outside Maharashtra House in... View Full Caption The Associated Press Associated Press Few countries sentence more people to death than India. Whether those punishments are actually carried out is another matter. Though well over a thousand people have been sent to death row this century, just four have been executed. Yakub Abdul Razak Memon was the latest. Jailed for his supporting role in the 1993 Mumbai bombings that killed 257 people, he was hanged Thursday morning. About 300 prominent citizens, including at least eight retired judges of the Supreme Court and the Delhi High Court, had urged India's president to commute Memon's sentence to life in prison, reflecting what appears to be growing uneasiness in India with the death penalty. Yet some of the most ardent supporters of capital punishment are leaders of the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party. "Right now, it's imperative that this conspirator is hanged to death. So it sends a message to the terrorists the world over, that India is not soft on terror," said Shaina N.C., a BJP spokesperson. Memon's last hopes of a court reprieve or delay were dashed Wednesday when a three-judge panel that the Supreme Court made no procedural lapses in rejecting his clemency plea last week. Memon, an accountant, was convicted of providing financial and logistical support in the series of bombings that shook India's business and entertainment hub in 1993. Those appealing for a commutation highlighted the time he has already spent in jail, that the main conspirators of the terror attacks on Mumbai were living freely in Pakistan and Dubai and that the death sentences of convicts in other terror-related cases had been commuted. Memon's last appeals for clemency came as a government-appointed panel that frames laws for the country held a rare debate, seeking the views of lawmakers, social scientists, journalists, lawyers and opinion makers across the country on the death penalty and whether it is time to do end it. Amid evidence that capital punishment has failed to serve as an effective deterrent against terror or crime, the objective of the Law Commission's discussions was to recommend whether to retain the death penalty or modify the conditions under which it would be applied. It's expected to make recommendations to the Supreme Court by the end of the year; any changes would eventually have to be approved by Parliament. The number of countries that use capital punishment has steadily declined. Today, more than two-thirds of nations have abolished the death penalty in law or in practice. Last year, Indian courts sentenced 64 people to death, making the country one of the top 10 out of 55 where capital punishment still exists. According to recent research by the National Law University in New Delhi, since the year 2000 more than 1,600 people have been sentenced to death. A joint study conducted by the university and the Law Commission also found that three-fourths of prisoners on death row are poor people who cannot afford to hire lawyers who can argue their case and often go without legal representation. For nearly a decade, however, India had an unofficial moratorium on executions. That ended in November 2012 with the hanging of Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving gunman in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks. Two months later, Mohammad Afzal Guru, convicted in a deadly 2001 attack on India's Parliament complex, was also hanged. Both executions were done secretly, without any public notice. The relatively low number of actual executions in India may reflect the Supreme Court's 1980 directive that the punishment be resorted to sparingly, and only in the "rarest of rare" cases. "The death penalty is inherently cruel. It is also irreversible. India should join the many countries that have committed to the United Nations General Assembly resolution in 2007, calling for a moratorium on executions and to work toward complete abolition of the death penalty," said Meenakshi Ganguly of Human Rights Watch. In recent years India's death penalty has effectively been reserved for the most devastating killings, and sometimes not even then. Last year, the Supreme Court commuted the death sentences for three inmates convicted of assassinating former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991, citing an 11-year delay in deciding on their appeals for mercy. A leader of the BJP, Subramanian Swamy, said he opposes such leniency. "You can't go on having mercy for people who have no mercy for the people of India," he said. "We have capital punishment; we must use it when people commit crimes against society." Ganguly, however, said a better deterrent against crime or acts of terror would be "reforms to the criminal justice system, proper investigation and timely prosecution that ensures that criminals are convicted and punished." -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
