Headlines
Mumbai jewellers resent sympathy for Yakub
Mumbai, July 28
Bollywood superstar Salman
Khan's comments that 1993 Mumbai blasts convict Yakub Memon should not
hang - which he withdrew after widespread outrage - have irked Mumbai
jewellers, with some calling for a boycott of his movies on Tuesday.
The
Mumbai Jewellers Association (MJA), which bore the brunt of the terror
attacks in Zaveri Bazar, the national hub of gold and jewellery
business, has taken umbrage at Khan's "sympathetic words for a
bloodthirsty terrorist".
"I ask all these people -- Salman Khan
and the 40-plus other prominent personalities pleading for mercy for
Memon -- have they absolutely no sympathy for the 257 people who lost
their lives due to the acts by Memon and his associates?" an enraged MJA
vice-president Kumar Jain asked.
"Why don't all these people
speak up for those innocent victims of terror? Here is a man (Memon) who
has undergone a trial, been convicted, and has lost all appeals in a
case in which 257 people were killed -- why show sympathy only for him?"
Jain said.
The jewellery hub has been thrice targeted by terrorists -- first in 1993, then in 2003 and again in 2011.
In
1993, a scooter loaded with 16 kg of RDX was found parked outside a
jewellery shop but failed to explode. However a car bomb a few metres
away went off and killed dozens that afternoon.
In a related
development, the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, the youth wing of the
BJP, has urged Maharashtra Governor C.V. Rao to cancel Salman Khan's
bail for his utterances vis-a-vis Yakub Memon.
It asked how a convict now on bail could challenge the legal verdict delivered to a convicted terrorist.