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| India executes Mumbai bomb plotter Yakub Memon | |
| (34 minutes later) | |
| India has executed Yakub Memon, the man convicted of financing the deadly 1993 Mumbai bombings, the Maharashtra state government has confirmed. | |
| Memon was hanged at a prison in Nagpur in the western state. | |
| The serial blasts killed 257 people, and were allegedly to avenge the killing of Muslims in riots a few months earlier. | |
| India rarely sentences people to death - only three executions have been carried out since 1995. | |
| Memon was hanged hours after the supreme court dismissed a final plea to stay the sentence. | |
| His lawyers had argued to the supreme court that executions are only to be carried out after seven days have passed following the rejection of a mercy petition. | |
| But in a pre-dawn hearing, the court ruled that because his first mercy petition had been rejected last year, the execution met the required rules, said media reports. | |
| Brother in hiding | |
| There was tight security around the prison on Thursday morning, and in parts of the state capital, Mumbai. | |
| Memon, a chartered accountant, was sentenced to death in 2007 by a special court in Mumbai after being convicted of providing financial and logistical support for the bombings. | |
| His case has divided opinion in India, with many asking for the suspension of the death sentence. | |
| Memon's brother, Tiger Memon, is widely seen as having been the mastermind behind the attacks, alongside gangland boss Dawood Ibrahim. Both remain in hiding. | |
| Critics say Yakub Memon is being punished for his brother's crimes. |