Asahara had been on death row for over a decade for the attack that killed 13 people and injured thousands more. Virtually blind, Asahara was seen as a charismatic speaker who cloaked himself in mysticism to draw recruits to the doomsday cult he developed in the 1980s. TOKYO: Shoko Asahara, the leader of the Aum Shinrikyo cult that carried out a deadly sarin attack on Tokyo’s subway in 1995, was executed on Friday.Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Friday that authorities are taking precautionary measures in case of any retaliation by his followers. He declined to comment on media reports that some of Asahara’s followers were also hanged. Asahara had been on death row for over a decade for the attack that killed 13 people and and sickened more than 6,000. His hanging Friday was the first execution of any of the 13 cult members on death row for the attack and other crimes. The March 20, 1995 incident shocked the world and prompted a massive crackdown. It paralyzed the Japanese capital, turning it into a virtual war zone as injured people staggered out of the underground struggling for breath with watering eyes. Some keeled over, foaming at the mouth, with blood streaming from their noses, as the rush hour attack unfolded. Asahara was born Chizuo Matsumoto in 1955 on the southwestern island of Kyushu and changed his name in the 1980s, when the Aum cult was being developed. Virtually blind, he was seen as a charismatic speaker who cloaked himself in mysticism to draw recruits to the doomsday cult he developed in the 1980s. The Aum cult, now renamed Aleph, officially disowned Asahara in 2000, but it was never banned. Experts says the former guru retained a strong influence, with some members using pictures of him and recordings of his voice for meditation.