Convict executed for role in Mumbai blasts, 22 years later

India hanged Yakub Memon on Thursday for his role in the country's deadliest bombings, which killed 257 people in Mumbai in 1993, after the Supreme Court threw out his final plea for a stay of execution.

Memon, a former accountant, was convicted as the "driving spirit" behind the serial blasts in India's financial capital, Mumbai. He spent two decades in jail before going to the gallows on his 53rd birthday in a jail in the western city of Nagpur.

The execution drew wide public support but has stirred controversy about whether the punishment adequately reflected the help that Memon gave authorities in solving the crime.