Letters

‘It’s Fascism’
The central home minister and the home secretary have gone on record saying that every procedure has been followed in the case of Afzal Guru. None of his family members are aware of this decision of the Government of India. Nor do the lawyers of Afzal Guru. It is mandatory on the side of the government to inform the petitioners who had filed the clemency petition. Afzal's wife Tabassum had filed a clemency petition demanding justice for her husband who never throughout the trial got an opportunity to defend himself and demand justice. She had in that petition even traced his early days in Kashmir and how he was continually being harassed and tortured by the notorious STF of J&K to act as an informer for the state. She showed in that petition how the ordeal has still been continuing in the life of her husband and their family in their quest for justice. The fact remains that neither Tabassum nor any of her family members have been informed about the rejection of this petition.

It is absolutely necessary that once a clemency petition is rejected the petitioner should be informed so that s/he can take recourse to other provisions that are guaranteed by the judiciary of India. There are provisions for judicial review which are quite exhaustive. But Afzal Guru was denied once again his last chance to represent himself and get relief from the gallows.

It should be noted that Mr Bhullar who is also under death row in Tihar Jail had moved a petition in the Supreme Court to look into the matter of the delay in the execution of death sentence. There are case laws in the apex court wherein pronounced delay in the execution of death sentence is in itself grounds for converting the same into life. The court had appointed Mr Ram Jethmalani as the amicus curiae in this case and was hearing the petition. That the Government of India under the Congress has even subverted the Supreme Court in clandestinely executing the death sentence bemoans the real, fascist nature of this government which has scant regards for its own judiciary and law.

The clandestine execution of the death sentence of Mr Afzal Guru violating all procedures and even the law of the land is nothing but desperate attempts of the ruling class parties like the Congress and the BJP to bet for votes appealing to the frenzy of jingoism. After having alienated the masses of the people and even the middle class through their anti-people, pro-market policies resulting in widespread miseries for the working people these parties have lost their faces and credibility and hence this desperate, brazen display of competitive jingoism on the life of someone who from the day one had never a chance to defend himself properly.

The Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners (CRPP) protests against the arrest of Prof SAR Geelani who is our Working President while on his way to Malviya Nagar by the notorious Special Cell of the Delhi Police. The Special Cell as usual is browbeating in every possible way to terrorise the people from expressing their dissent against the clandestine execution of Mr Afzal Guru.

Amit Bhattacharyya, Secretary General
P A Sebastian, Vice President
MN Ravunni, Vice President
Rona Wilson, Secretary Public Relations
Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners

Throttling Freedom in Kashmir
People's Union of Democratic Rights (PUDR) strongly condemns the imposition of curfew accompanied by blanket gag on all media, including television, print and online, in the Kashmir valley following the secretive hanging of Afzal Guru.

Since Saturday (February 9), morning Kashmir valley has been placed under a preemptive curfew forcing people to stay locked inside their houses. Satellite and cable tv, internet and even mobile sms have been blacked out in the valley. On Saturday night, the police also stopped the publication and distribution of all newspapers. The authorities did not allow copy to reach the press. Police teams visited various printing presses of daily newspapers and asked the management to stop publishing. The dailies that managed to slip through this net and publish their editions had all the copies seized. With the internet services withdrawn, online editions too couldn't get updated on time.

So far, three people have been killed and more than fifty injured in the Valley due to police action on popular protests.

This is all being done to silence the protests against the cold-blooded judicial killing of Guru and to keep the people in the dark about dissenting voices and popular opinion in Kashmir. Evidently, putting the entire population of the Valley under house-arrest and this blatant violation of the right to free speech, expression and assembly doesn't prick the conscience of the self-styled keepers of the 'collective conscience' of the country.

One is also struck by the double standards of the J&K state government. On the one hand chief minister Omar Abdullah is speaking out against the hanging of Afzal Guru, on the other hand his administration is systematically blacking out information and curbing the basic and inalienable democratic rights of the Kashmiri people.

Gagging of the media is nothing new in Kashmir, and by and large it goes unreported in Indian media. In fact, India's media watchdogs have acquired notoriety in consistently acquiescing in the throttling of freedom of expression and assembly through their silence, where Kashmir is concerned. PUDR sincerely hopes that the Indian mainstream media and its apex bodies like the Press Council of India, Editors Guild and the Indian Broadcasters Association will discover courage to speak out against this outrageous attack on the freedom of the press and the systematic throttling of democratic rights of the people of Kashmir.

Ashish Gupta and D Manjit
Secretaries, PUDR

Rape in Janglemahal
After the gang rape of eleven tribal women at Sonamukhi in 2010 and Sibani Singh in 2011, it is now the turn of Subhadra Mahato of village Oraly under Banspahari Gram Panchayat, Belpahari thana.The CRPF jawans gang-raped her sometime during the Makar Sankranti festival,2013 while she along with her friend Sarathi Mahato had gone near the forest to collect Sal leaves. While Sarathi managed to escape, Subhadra was caught and raped. Subhadra is an ICDS worker,who is at present lying in a state of trauma at her father's house, her elder brother Prafulla Mahato is too scared to lodge a protest against the polices, are villagers, especially the women who say they are also frightened to go inside the forest to collect leaves, which are vital source of their livelihood.

After the incident the villagers demonstrated before the Chhurimara CRPF camp, demanding the arrest of the culprits. The SP Jhargram rushed to the spot and assured them that it was a small matter and it was the act of some miscreants who have taken shelter in the adjoining areas from Jharkhand. The villagers must carry lathis and torches, and they must be vigilant against these elements.

APDR and a few Women's organisations from Kolkata and Jhargram visited the village on 3.2.’13 for fact finding. Although almost everyone admitted to the occurence, the victim was too traumatised to appear. The fact-finding team found that instead of executing the most essential matters, the SP is scrupulously trying to shield the real culprits and hoodwink the the aggrieved family.
The Police has not accepted any complaint from the victim or her family.
The Police did not put the victim through medical test.
The Police did not arrest the culprits and put them up at a fast track court for speedy trial.

A fear psychosis is palpable on the faces of the villagers. In this fur-flung village of Jungal Mahal there are no candle light processions for the rape victims and no vociferous protests. Women like Subhadra and Sarathi never dream of seeing their perpetrators punished. The matter needs thorough probe.

Arup Dasgupta, Secretary
APDR, Midnapore

Black Saturday
Civil Liberties Monitoring Committee strongly condemns the brutal execution of Afzal Guru today (February, 9) morning at 7.30 am in Tihar Jail by the Congress led government. It is a matter of shame for the whole civilized world that an innocent person, on whom criminal charges were framed on doubt, was hanged without informing his family members and his lawyers and without fulfilling last wishes of a dying person. It is a matter of more concern that even the last rites were not allowed to perform and he was buried in the Tihar jail premises itself. The attitude of government of India towards Afzal Guru reflects how the state behaves with the Kashmiri people.

Civil Liberties believe that Afzal Guru was an innocent person and became the victim of Indian intelligence agencies. The mystery of Parliament attack is not solved even today. Because those who attacked Parliament their identities are not known till now, in fact the government has not revealed their identities. That time, Advani who was Home Minister had said that by faces the attackers look like Pakistanis. In fact Advani also looks like Pakistani because he was born in Pakistan. If a person looking like Pakistani becomes terrorist then what about hundreds of refugees who have migrated to India!

But Afzal Guru was not a Pakistani, and there is no clear evidence that he was involved in the attack on Parliament except that he was a Kashmiri and a Muslim. Even Supreme Court Bench held that "The collective conscience of the society will be satisfied only if the death penalty is awarded to Afzal Guru." Civil Liberties want to clear that Judgments cannot be delivered on the basis of 'collective conscience' and on the basis of 'faith of the majority community'. If at all the judgments are delivered on the basis of such things, then there is no meaning of Judiciary and the judicial procedure system will collapse completely.

Civil Liberties Monitoring Committee expresses grave concern that when the President had rejected the clemency of Afzal Guru, then he had right to judicial review of this rejection. But neither was he informed of rejection of mercy petition nor his family and lawyers were informed about it. Instead of informing of mercy petition rejection, he was informed that he is going to be hanged in the next morning.

Today, it may be a great day for the government and Hindutva people of India but for the justice loving people and believers of the Constitution as well as for the civilized world, 9th February 2013 is a Black Day, when an innocent Afzal Guru was brutally murdered by the government of India in the name of people of India, just trying to show concern about the security of Indians.

Civil Liberties also want to clear that there is a big conspiracy behind the hanging of Afzal Guru. There is a political game behind it. The present Congress government wants to go to early elections on the cold blooded murder of Ajmal Amer Kasab and Afzal Guru to capture the votes from the grip of Hindutva leaders as Rajiv Gandhi had done by opening the locks of Babri Masjid and allowed to perform Shilanyas. Congress Party wants to come to power on the blood of humans.

Civil Liberties Monitoring Committee believes that execution or capital punishment is an inhuman act and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of United Nations is against the capital punishment. Very recently the United Nations assembled to abolish the capital punishment all over the world but unfortunately at this moment, India hanged a person who did not get fair chance to self defense.

This committee demands to the government of India to abolish the death penalty and follow the International standards of justice and fair trial for all. Also demands the government of India to stop murdering of people in the name of idea of India.

One thing should be clear that by hanging Afzal Guru, the mystery of Parliament attack does not get solved, but it becomes more complicated more suspicious and it can also be said that the government of India instead of solving the case is trying maximum to dissolve it. It is largely believed that the Parliament attack case is not investigated properly and the role of the then government and its agencies is highly suspicious. Still people believe that the BJP led government was behind the attack to save its government from falling and gain sympathy of the majority community.

Lateef Mohammed Khan,
General Secretary,
Civil Libaties Monitoring Committee

Frontier
Vol. 45, No. 33, February 24-Mar 2, 2013

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