Even as the CPI (M) called to spare Mumbai blast accused Yakub Memon from the gallows, a human rights activists’ initiative in Kerala’s Kannur district that campaigns for the abolition of the death penalty plans to hold a ‘Shame India’ rally next week seeking to stop the execution.
The rally will demand that Memon, who has been condemned to death in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case, be spared as death penalty is barbarian justice unbecoming of a civilised society. The ‘Shame India’ rally organisers said the ruling political establishment was utilising death sentence to promote its sectarian interests.
They pointed out that many countries had already abolished death penalty. In India too, public opinion against the penalty was rising fast.