Offered legal help at every stage: HCBA

KT NEWS SERVICE. Dated: 2/18/2013 11:32:00 PM

‘Afzal wanted a united Hurriyat to fight’

SRINAGAR, Feb 18: Stating that it had offered legal assistance to Mohammad Afzal Guru, Parliament attack convict who was hanged in Tihar jail on February 9, the High Court Bar Association (HCBA) today clarified that Guru never showed any inclination nor did his family approached it for any sort of legal aid.
Addressing a press conference here at lower court complex, Zaffar Qureshi, president HCBA, said that his predecessors had met Guru at Tihar jail and had offered him legal aid but Guru had already engaged a senior lawyer then.
Mian Abdul Qayoom and Nazir Ahmad Ronga the former presidents of Bar Association who were also present on the occasion showed documents including a memorandum that was sent to the leaders of India and Pakistan seeking inclusion of Guru’s case in agenda of the then president of Pakistan Pervez Musharaf and Prime Minister of India Dr Manmohan Singh in their New York meet dated September 14, 2005.
The Bar leaders said they were not bound to explain before any political party who had questioned Bar’s role in providing legal aid to Guru but they wanted to put the records straight in light of their efforts made at every stage of Guru’s trial. “Mr Mian Abdul Qayoom met Mohammad Afzal Guru at Tihar jail in 2006 and offered legal aid but the latter didn’t accept. Similarly in 2009, Mian Qayoom tried to meet him again in the same jail but that time he was not allowed to meet. Similarly, the family of Guru never approached us for any sort of legal assistance. We should understand that it was not any kind of a Public Interest Litigation that anybody can intervene but it was kind of matter in which accused or his family need to approach lawyers for their services,” Qureshi told Kahsmir Times over phone.
During the press conference, Mian Qayoom quoted Guru saying that he did not weep with death sentence given to him but he had wept on a split in Hurriyat Conference. “Guru said that he didn’t cry when he was awarded death sentence by court but had been hurt when Hurriyat Conference got divided into two factions,” the Bar leaders told media persons adding that Guru had expressed apprehensions that sacrifices offered by Kashmiri youth could go waste after division of the separatist leadership.
“I request them (Hurriyat) to unite to respect to the sacrifices presented by martyrs and prisoners. It is important that it should unite to take the struggle to its logical end. Death sentence has not affected my confidence but the division in the Hurriyat has discouraged me,” the Bar leaders said while quoting Guru.
“We followed every possible legal procedure to save the life of Guru. We also offered him free legal services to plead his case during our visit to Tihar Jail but he refused saying he had engaged a senior lawyer in the Supreme Court,” Qureshi said.
Later after the press briefing was over, the members Bar association offered funeral prayers in absentia for Guru.

 

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