Many Yakub Memon mourners potential terrorists: Tripura Governor

Governor of Tripura, Tathagata Roy, on Friday said all those who attended the last rites of Mumbai serial blasts convict Yakub Memon in Mumbai on Thursday were potential terrorists who must be now watched keenly by the Indian intelligence agencies.

“Intelligence shd keep a tab on all (expt relatives & close friends) who assembled bfr Yakub Memon’s corpse. Many are potential terrorists,” tweeted Governor Roy from his personal handle, @tathagata2. His bio on the microblogging site reads: “Governor, Indian state of Tripura. Essentially political person, sworn to discharge Constitutional duties. Politics on backburner, but still a proud Swayamsevak (member of RSS).”

The RSS or Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is the ideological mentor of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party government at the Centre and heads a network of right-wing organisations, collectively called the Sangh Parivar.

In another tweet, the 70-year-old former chief of West Bengal BJP, said, “Governors ought to be concerned abt security of state. Intelligence keeping tab on Yakub’s mourners is preventing terror. Better than cure.”

As a few others on Tweeter asked why his statement should not be read as fomenting commualism, he posted, “When I suggested ‘intelligence keeping a tab’, I mentiond NO COMMUNITY. So how come I’m accused of being ‘communal bigot’? Guilty conscience?”

Memon was hanged on Thursday morning in a Nagpur jail after the Supreme Court, in an unprecedented pre-dawn hearing, refused to stay his execution. His mercy pleas were earlier rejected by President Pranab Mukherjee and Maharashtra Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao.

The government had on Thursday afternoon blacked out the media from reporting about Memon’s final rites, which was reportedly attended by about 10,000 people.