<div>Yakub Memon became the third person, after Ajmal Kasab and Afzal Guru, to be executed in the last three years with anti-death penalty activists and organisations on Thursday describing it as “cruel and inhuman”.<br /><br />Memon’s execution came after rejection of several mercy petitions that took place during the tenure of President Pranab Mukherjee.<br /><br />Kasab was hanged on November 21, 2012, the first execution after a gap of over eight years when Dhananjoy Chatterjee was hanged. Afzal was executed in secrecy on February 9, 2013. There was no execution last year.<br /><br />According to National Crime Records Bureau, there are 382 people sentenced to death in Indian prisons as on December 2013.<br /><br />The Amnesty International India described the execution of Mumbai terror attack convict as “cruel and inhuman”, marking another “disheartening” use of the death penalty in the country.<br /><br />“This morning, the Indian government essentially killed a man in cold blood to show that killing is wrong,” said Aakar Patel, Executive Director of Amnesty International India, in a statement. Patel said this execution would not deliver justice for the 1993 Mumbai blasts. “It is a misguided attempt to prevent terrorism, and a disappointing use of the criminal justice system as a tool for retribution,” he added.<br /><br />Human Rights Watch said India should adopt the message of Mahatma Gandhi that an “eye for an eye will make the whole world blind” as the practice of death penalty was “blinding the Indian Justice”.<br /><br />Lawyer Prashant Bhushan, who had appeared for Yakub Memon on Thursday early morning hearing in Supreme Court, questioned the “unseemly hurry” behind the execution. He claimed that Memon was not given time to challenge the rejection of his mercy petition.<br /><br />The execution was kind of a “retributive violence” by the state and it promotes “lynch mob mentality”, he added.<br /><br />Another prominent lawyer Indira Jaising tweeted: “The fight against terrorism and violence against women are used to sustain the death penalty, but it ends neither, just one more dead body.”</div>
<div>Yakub Memon became the third person, after Ajmal Kasab and Afzal Guru, to be executed in the last three years with anti-death penalty activists and organisations on Thursday describing it as “cruel and inhuman”.<br /><br />Memon’s execution came after rejection of several mercy petitions that took place during the tenure of President Pranab Mukherjee.<br /><br />Kasab was hanged on November 21, 2012, the first execution after a gap of over eight years when Dhananjoy Chatterjee was hanged. Afzal was executed in secrecy on February 9, 2013. There was no execution last year.<br /><br />According to National Crime Records Bureau, there are 382 people sentenced to death in Indian prisons as on December 2013.<br /><br />The Amnesty International India described the execution of Mumbai terror attack convict as “cruel and inhuman”, marking another “disheartening” use of the death penalty in the country.<br /><br />“This morning, the Indian government essentially killed a man in cold blood to show that killing is wrong,” said Aakar Patel, Executive Director of Amnesty International India, in a statement. Patel said this execution would not deliver justice for the 1993 Mumbai blasts. “It is a misguided attempt to prevent terrorism, and a disappointing use of the criminal justice system as a tool for retribution,” he added.<br /><br />Human Rights Watch said India should adopt the message of Mahatma Gandhi that an “eye for an eye will make the whole world blind” as the practice of death penalty was “blinding the Indian Justice”.<br /><br />Lawyer Prashant Bhushan, who had appeared for Yakub Memon on Thursday early morning hearing in Supreme Court, questioned the “unseemly hurry” behind the execution. He claimed that Memon was not given time to challenge the rejection of his mercy petition.<br /><br />The execution was kind of a “retributive violence” by the state and it promotes “lynch mob mentality”, he added.<br /><br />Another prominent lawyer Indira Jaising tweeted: “The fight against terrorism and violence against women are used to sustain the death penalty, but it ends neither, just one more dead body.”</div>
