Letter

Afzal Guru's Hanging

Due to a very unwise and deplorable decision of President Pranab Mukherjee to reject the mercy petition to commute Afzal Guru's death sentence, Afzal Guru has been hanged today (9 February 2013) morning.The hanging was quite unwarranted, commutation would have been a very wise step and assuaged the surcharged feelings of Kashmiris and would also have paved the way for commutation of Sarabjit Singh's death sentence in Pakistan. Already after Kasab's hanging, demands and demonstrations to hang Sarabjit Singh escalated in Pakistan and now the public pressure will multiply many times and it will be very difficult to save Sarabjit Singh's life. If he is hanged by Pakistan, then many of the Sikhs in India would be discontented. So the unwise and unwarranted hanging of Afzal Guru can have two very calamitous consequences—alienating both Kashmiri Muslims and many of the Sikhs and giving rise to a surge in Kashmiri insurgency and Khalistani secessionism. Guru's family was not informed of his execution.

It is an atrocious act on the part of the government since normally death row prisoners are to be given and are given last interview with their near and dear and for that there are instances when the State pays and brings the relatives even. The execution of Afzal Guru after more than 8 years of waiting on the death row and on the basis of mere circumstantial evidence is an indelible stain on the nation.

I Mallikarjuna Sharma,
Hyderabad

Frontier
Vol. 45, No. 32, February 17-23, 2013

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