<ul><li>There were no smoke wisps curling up in the skies, but rows and rows of shops, timber marts near Mahim sea-shore were all coffee black in colour looking like scorched skulls, with gaping mouths and eyeless sockets.</li><br /><p>The period was late January 1993. The city was still recovering from the 1992-1993 Bombay communal riots that had claimed over a thousand lives. Thousands of shops, hotels, huts and houses had gone up in flames. It was a time when there was fear over the city that never slept.<br /><br />And in one such charred shop, near the Mahim sea-shore, sat a 28-year-old extremely fair-skinned guy with a pallid face and sad eyes of a dark over-cast autumn sky, on a stool speaking fluent English. He looked up as this correspondent and a Hong-Kong based reporter working for an international radio service strolled inside of what was once a shop and office.<br /><br />The afternoon was quite chilly and so was the breeze inside the charred remains of the shop with a name-plate that once proclaimed travel agency, mutton exporting company, cold storage and chartered accountant. The name-plate hung elliptically and the alphabet cowered in the dark smoky splotches.<br /><br />“I am a chartered accountant by profession and my name is Yakub Memon. I stay nearby at Al-Husseni building. The riots hit us hard. Bhaijaan (elder brother) had worked so hard to get us educated... he himself is not educated but he made me a chartered accountant.<br /><br />“ Everything is finished. They came and burnt everything. I saw them hacking people, I heard screaming of people surrounded in flames. I called up police... I called up local politicians... nobody came. They even attacked our shop and you can see what they did. Destroyed everything. I do not blame the people who did this but I blame the politicians (Shiv Sena and BJP) who have poisoned their minds. Now the same attackers we all know who they are... avert their eyes. What do you want me to say...” Bitterness and dried up tears hung in the musty air.<br /><br />A month later on March 12, 1993, serial bomb blasts shook the city. And after 48 hours, investigators gave out the name of bomb blast planners and one of them was Yakub Memon, younger brother of Mushtaq Memon alias Tiger Memon. Tiger Memon along with Mohammed Dossa planned and executed the bombings.<br /></p></ul>
<ul><li>There were no smoke wisps curling up in the skies, but rows and rows of shops, timber marts near Mahim sea-shore were all coffee black in colour looking like scorched skulls, with gaping mouths and eyeless sockets.</li><br /><p>The period was late January 1993. The city was still recovering from the 1992-1993 Bombay communal riots that had claimed over a thousand lives. Thousands of shops, hotels, huts and houses had gone up in flames. It was a time when there was fear over the city that never slept.<br /><br />And in one such charred shop, near the Mahim sea-shore, sat a 28-year-old extremely fair-skinned guy with a pallid face and sad eyes of a dark over-cast autumn sky, on a stool speaking fluent English. He looked up as this correspondent and a Hong-Kong based reporter working for an international radio service strolled inside of what was once a shop and office.<br /><br />The afternoon was quite chilly and so was the breeze inside the charred remains of the shop with a name-plate that once proclaimed travel agency, mutton exporting company, cold storage and chartered accountant. The name-plate hung elliptically and the alphabet cowered in the dark smoky splotches.<br /><br />“I am a chartered accountant by profession and my name is Yakub Memon. I stay nearby at Al-Husseni building. The riots hit us hard. Bhaijaan (elder brother) had worked so hard to get us educated... he himself is not educated but he made me a chartered accountant.<br /><br />“ Everything is finished. They came and burnt everything. I saw them hacking people, I heard screaming of people surrounded in flames. I called up police... I called up local politicians... nobody came. They even attacked our shop and you can see what they did. Destroyed everything. I do not blame the people who did this but I blame the politicians (Shiv Sena and BJP) who have poisoned their minds. Now the same attackers we all know who they are... avert their eyes. What do you want me to say...” Bitterness and dried up tears hung in the musty air.<br /><br />A month later on March 12, 1993, serial bomb blasts shook the city. And after 48 hours, investigators gave out the name of bomb blast planners and one of them was Yakub Memon, younger brother of Mushtaq Memon alias Tiger Memon. Tiger Memon along with Mohammed Dossa planned and executed the bombings.<br /></p></ul>
