Prayers, slogans as Yakub's body is taken to his mother’s Mahim home

MUMBAI: At 1.09 pm, when a special hearse carrying Yakub Memon’s body sped into Mahim from the domestic airport, crossed rows of mediapersons and their crew, local onlookers, police teams and a colony of Rapid Action Force to reach his mother’s house Bismilla Manzil on Cadell Road, the long wait transformed into a sense of emptiness for many present and relief for others.
Within seconds, the police lowered and removed the barricades and the fully-kitted RAF team swiftly moved into place outside Bismilla Manzil where first, hundreds and soon around 15,000 people showed up, occupying an entire stretch of the road to offer a collective prayer for the dead. Salim Khan, Yakub’s neighbour in Mahim said, “We respect the verdict of the court as Indians and abide by it. But in future, don’t hang anyone. A life term is stringent punishment that makes a convict regret his actions. By hanging Yakub, the court wanted to close the story of the 1993 blasts, once and for all.’’ An old man also said, “A court’s verdict must be abided. It is what Allah wishes.’’
Mumbai police chief Rakesh Maria, the officer who in March 1993 had detected the case as DCP and unspooled the blasts conspiracy hatched by Yakub’s brother, the still absconding Tiger Memon, was the one who with the same able aptness oversaw arrangements for the funeral of the lone condemned convict, bringing things a full circle. To the media he said, “Why have you come for this funeral, why not go to Rameshwar (for Abdul Kalam’s)”.
Police teams were in place outside the Memons’ Mahim residence at Al Hussain CHS where the flats of Tiger Memon lie sealed and where Yakub’s wife and daughter reside, and also outside Bismilla Manzil where Yakub’s mother Hanifa and brother Suleiman—both acquitted in the case—reside. At 2 am, they were allowed to sleep for two hours before getting back on duty again.
News of the hanging had brought people from as far as Trombay and beyond and some as close as Dadar to Mahim. No sooner was Yakub’s body removed from the hearse than the gathered crowd chanted slogans but senior members, particularly Yakub’s father-in-law Iqbal, stopped them. Close relatives and friends carried Yakub’s body chanting “Allah o Akbar” ’ (Allah is great) and local monitors appointed by police made a chain and restricted the entry of people inside the building. Yakub’s body was kept on the second floor where his mother Hanifa, wife Raheen and their 21-year-old daughter read the Quran and prayed for him.
At 3.10pm, Yakub’s body was taken to the terrace where he was given the ‘gosul’ (bath) and his body was brought down for the namaz-e-janaza at 3.25pm. At first, an announcement was made that prayer would be held at 4.30 pm at Bada Qabrastan. But looking at the turnout, it was decided to hold it at Mahim. A team of crime branch officers made a confidential report that 10,000 to 12,000 people offered Namaz-e-janaza at Mahim and 15,000 did so at Bada Qabarastan. At 3.30pm, after Yakub’s body was prepared for the funeral and brought out, prayers began and ended three minutes later. the body placed in an ambulance then departed for Marine Lines.