MUMBAI: Hanged Mumbai bomb blasts convict Yakub Memon was on Thursday evening buried with full religious rites at a Muslim cemetery here.
The body was taken from Mahim to Bada Qabrastan near Marine Lines in south Mumbai. It was accompanied by his family members and a large posse of armed police personnel.
According to witnesses, huge crowds gathered near the cemetery, as the Quick Response Team of Mumbai police, and Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria personally supervised the arrangements.
Earlier, after arrival from Nagpur to the Mumbai airport, Memon's body -- wrapped in a white shroud (kafan) and covered under a black funeral cortege -- was taken in an ambulance to Mahim and then to the terrace of the Bismillah Manzil building, near his home in Al Husseini building.
Family members and relatives gathered and offered namaz there before the funeral rites.
Soon after the body reached the Bada Qabrastan, a special 'namaz-e-janaza' (funeral prayer) was offered and later it was buried besides the graves of his parents and other family members.
A separate area was allocated to the huge media contingent to cover the funeral, although because of an earlier gag order, the media was barred from either photographing or videographing the ceremony.
Accordingly, there was no live telecast of the funeral procession or the last rites following the 13-hour gag order issued by Deputy Commissioner of Police (Operations) Sanjay Barkund, which will end at Thursday midnight.
The police order restraining the media said reports were received of "every likelihood of breach of peace and disturbance of public tranquillity and also there is a grave danger to human life, health and safety and injury to public property on that account".
The entire day, since the hanging in Nagpur and the funeral in Mumbai, passed off without any untoward incident reported from any part of Maharashtra.
The March 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts convict was executed at 6.35 a.m. on Thursday at the Nagpur Central Jail.
Not willing to take any chances, police here on Thursday issued a gag order to the media barring it from photographing and videographing the funeral procession and the last rites of hanged convict Yakub Memon.
The 13-hour gag order was issued by Deputy Commissioner of Police (Operations) Sanjay Barkund from 11 a.m. till midnight of Thursday.
Following this, all TV channels voluntarily dissuaded from telecasting the funeral procession and the last rites.
Certain TV channels even flashed a notice, saying they would not telecast the funeral as Memon was a traitor and they would not make him a "hero" by publicizing his last rites.
The police order restraining the media said reports were received of "every likelihood of breach of peace and disturbance of public tranquillity and also there is a grave danger to human life, health and safety and injury to public property on that account".
The March 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts convict was executed at 6.35 a.m. in Nagpur on Thursday. His body was handed over to his family and flown to Mumbai by an air ambulance for the funeral rites.