1. Home
2. Front Page

Family, separatists react sharply

KT NEWS SERVICE. Dated: 4/7/2013 11:56:35 PM

SRINAGAR, Apr 7: The observation with regard to Mohammad Afzal Guru made by Supreme Court while staying the execution of eight death row prisoners whose mercy petitions were rejected by President Pranab Mukherjee earlier this week, has evoked a sharp reaction from Guru’s family, separatists, Bar and mainstream parties questioning the ‘double standards of the government of India’.
During an urgent hearing that took place late in the evening at Justice P Sathasivam's residence in New Delhi, a division bench of the Apex Court that stayed the execution of eight death row prisoners convicted in different murder cases, observed: “It should not happen as it happened in the Jammu and Kashmir case (Afzal's hanging). The intimation of the execution reached the relatives of the person (Afzal) after his hanging. That is bad. The relatives lost an opportunity to meet the condemned prisoner for one last time before his execution.”
Talking to Kashmir Times, Mohammad Yasin Guru, cousin of Afzal Guru who was executed and buried at Tihar Jail on February 9 morning, said: “This shows how Kashmiris are treated differently by the government of India. It shows the double standards of the government of India that treats the citizens of its so-called Atoot Ang differently. It also shows how seriously the ‘puppet’ Jammu and Kashmir government is taken by the government of India.”
He added: “Guru was executed as he was a Kashmiri and a Muslim. Other state governments stood firmly behind their citizens and that is why the government of India took them seriously but unfortunately our government here did nothing.”
Echoing the view of the Yasin Guru, the High Court Bar Association (HCBA) president Zaffar Quershi termed the Supreme Court observation a vindication of Bar’s stand that Guru’s execution was selective and Guru was not allowed to avail the right of judicial review after his mercy petition was rejected by the President Pranab Mukherjee.
“Where is the collective conscience of India when we talk of the Veerapan’s aides and these eight prisoners? Law says that death sentence be given in rarest of rare cases and those cases are when you deal with a serial killer who takes pleasure in killing people. But in the case of Guru the government of India not only executed him in a hush-hush manner but also deprived his family of a chance to meet their family head before he was taken to gallows. Irony is that the government of India offered Kasab’s body to Pakistan even after he killed over 300 people and returned the body of Indira Gandhi’s killer but in case of Guru, the same government has confined his body to the four walls of Tihar jail. You apply law and constitution to a living person but not to a body,” Quereshi remarked.
He said that it was more shocking that in an electronic age, the government of India chose to inform Guru’s family, through a speed post that too after the execution.
Mohammad Yasin Malik, chairman Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) believes that ‘President Pranab Mukherjee desecrated the constitution of India himself by rejecting the mercy plea of Guru in a secretive manner’. “One should see the case of Afzal Guru, right from rejection of his mercy plea. It was the president himself who killed the constitution by rejecting his plea secretly and now providing him an opportunity to go for judicial review of his decision.”
Talking to Kashmir Times, Saif-u-Din Soz, Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC) President said that it was wrong not to allow Afzal’s family to meet him. “The home ministry committed wrong. I have already told this to the higher ups in Delhi. The family of Guru should have been informed prior to his execution. Nevertheless, the Supreme Court stay in latest in cases of eight death row convicts should be welcomed and accepted by all.”
Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Minister Ali Mohammad Sagar said that the Supreme Court endorsed the stand of National Conference. “What the Supreme Court has stated is absolutely right and in a sense the apex court has taken a dig on Home Minister of India. It is the victory of our stand and we right from the beginning had been saying that Afzal should have been allowed to meet his family,” Sagar has told a local news gathering agency CNS.
Reacting to observation made by the Supreme Court, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) MLC and spokesperson Nayeem Akhter has said Afzal Guroo and his family were rounded. “The intention that was expressed by everybody including PDP has now got the stamp of Supreme Court which is good but unfortunately not good because Afzal Guroo is dead and his family was denied to have a last glimpse of him,” Akhter has told a local news gathering agency CNS.
MLA Langate, Sheikh Abdul Rashid, believes that the observation of the Supreme Court vindicates his stand that government of India has always used a different yard stick for Kashmiris. “Today’s observation made by the Apex Court proves that government fo India did commit a wrong. Government of India always want to ruin the lives of Kashmiri people and in fact it can never be friend of common Kashmiri,” Rashid observed.