July 31: The "first thing" that struck Abdul Mateen Quereshi, who was at Yakub Memon's funeral prayer and burial in Mumbai yesterday, was that there were "so many people".

"I wondered why - and why so many were crying," the garment shop owner, who lives behind the Memons' family home in Mahim, told The Telegraph today. "I'd seen people cry like this only for people they knew intimately."

A senior journalist based in Mumbai acknowledged a sense of "betrayal" among some in the community over Yakub's hanging but said: "The sea of people yesterday came together not in defiance, not in a show of strength, but in silent appeal to the government that justice should be equal for all."

According to Mumbai police estimates, the combined strength of the crowds at the namaz-e-janaza - the last prayer for the departed - at the Mahim dargah in central Mumbai and at the Bada Qabaristan cemetery in south Mumbai was between 15,000 and 17,000. But Mumbai police sources and some who said they had attended the funeral told this newspaper the combined number was easily more than 35,000.

"Two mostly different sets of people attended the two events," said M.A. Khalid, a social activist who was present at both places, citing how the police had stopped most of those at the dargah from travelling to Bada Qabaristan.

"The community came in solidarity. There is no other way to describe such a huge attendance," he added.

"They sympathised with Yakub and his plight. People kept saying they needed answers why this man came back to India with his wife and infant child if he was a terrorist."

Khalid said the crowd had "neither been invited by community leaders nor did it know the Memons, but people were still crying".

"Perhaps they were crying at their own misfortunes or maybe for the injustice done to Yakub," he said.

Tripura governor Tathagata Roy triggered outrage today by alleging that many among the crowd were "potential terrorists". 

But businessman Jasjit Singh Chauhan, 57, said he believed they had come in a spontaneous show of "solidarity".

Chauhan, born and brought up in Mumbai, said he wasn't surprised at the huge turnout because "a lot of people from both communities opposed the hanging".

"What was so great about it was that it was spontaneous and unplanned and was conducted in peace. This shows how the entire community came together in a show of solidarity."

Akhtar Mansuri, a hotelier who attended the namaz-e-janaza, described his feelings as he watched Yakub's last rites.

"I felt this deep sense of sadness and sympathy for Memon, his child, his wife and his family," Mansuri said.

"His trust in the country was so high that he risked his child's life and well-being to get back home. It is amazing that 21 years in prison is not punishment enough."

Mansuri added: "It gives me solace that even some people outside the community have protested against Yakub's hanging. I went there for the sake of humanity. After someone dies, their crimes are weighed by God."

The senior Mumbai journalist who spoke to this newspaper acknowledged an undercurrent of anger among some in the community who thought that Yakub's hanging was unjust.

"For the past one week, a feeling of anger had simmered at the death sentence. People were talking of Yakub's surrender to the authorities, his show of faith in India," the journalist said. "They felt betrayed."

But he said Yakub's father Abdul Razzak, a businessman and former cricketer who once played with Tiger Pataudi, had "a lot of goodwill in this area".

"The Memons were held in high regard before their name came up in the blast cases. So, perhaps, many people turned up in a show of goodwill."

Another journalist, who had covered the 1992-1993 riots, the blasts and the trial, described the same feeling of despondency within the community.

"The feeling predominantly is that he was hanged because he was a Muslim. People feel that he showed extraordinary courage in defying Pakistan and coming to India with evidence. Anyone else would have been hailed as a hero, they feel," he said.

Sources said the crowds in front of Bismillah Manzil in Mahim, the home of Yakub's sister-in-law and where his body was taken, took even the Memons by surprise.

The family had previously agreed to police commissioner Rakesh Maria's request to have one prayer in south Mumbai. But the swelling crowds compelled Yakub's father-in-law to request Maria to allow a prayer nearby in central Mumbai.

"In my opinion, the crowds came to show that they cared. They cared that he had come back and sought to help the Indian authorities," said Maulana Mahmood Ahmad Khan Daryabadi, general secretary of the All India Ulama Council.

"The sense of betrayal among the people of the community is intense. What did he get by coming back? Hanging."

He stressed that the crowds were not led by community leaders.

"We took a conscious decision not to be present at either of these events. They were disciplined and abided by the instructions from activists and other elders present at the funeral. While the dissatisfaction was deep-rooted, they kept it buried," he said.

Quereshi said only God knew whether Yakub was a terrorist. "I don't care much for what the government thinks of him. I just know that my feelings of sympathy for him were genuine and so was the grief I saw around me yesterday," he said.

"The tears were not for Yakub the Muslim but for Yakub the man and for the life lost."