Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Monday said that Centre’s course of action regarding cases similar to Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru will determine whether Guru’s hanging was “selective and political.”
“There are still such people against whom there are similar allegations (like that of Guru). If those people are hanged, then people of Kashmir will feel that Guru’s hanging was not political in nature,” Mr. Omar told J&K Assembly while widening up the debate on the aftermath situation of Guru’s hanging.
Opposition PDP, NC, CPI(M) and People Democratic Front (PDF) had moved motions for adjournment of the business of the house to discuss the situation arising out of the hanging of Guru and returning his mortal remains to the family.
Speaker Mubarak Gul allowed the discussion on Monday on Guru and NC-coalition alley of Congress had brought the adjournment motion over the issue along with Opposition.
“Let us wait and watch what action is being taken against others convicted in similar cases”, he added and lambasted PDP and separatists for doing politics on human blood-shed.
“I even today do not accept that Guru was hanged for political reasons”, Mr. Omar said, adding, that the course of action regarding similar cases would determine it.
Lashing at PDP for politicising the issue, he said “You have no concern either for Afzal Guru or his family, neither you were concerned about people facing difficulties under curfew, you only wanted the situation go out of control, precious human lives are lost and you had an open field to play politics”.
Keywords: Afzal Guru hanging, Jammu and Kashmir Assembly, Omar Abdullah, 2001 Parliament attack, Kashmir dispute
Lots of people including some celebrities have taken he cudgel lamenting the hanging of Afsal Guru. True, there appear to be some fine points of law that were overlooked in the conduct of the criminal case, and the proceedings could have been conducted better. But these are but arguments from sophists who demand perfection in an imperfect world, while overlooking an enormity of injustice perpetrated right under their noses. There is a vast body of eminently credible evidence - sworn affidavits - amounting thousands of pages and hundreds of witnesses corroborated. Defenders of Afsal Guru want to discard all that to compensate for a few selected technical errors. Insisting on perfection or nothing - freeing every accused on flimsy grounds - will only result in injustice for all. That would be injustice to the innocent and patriotic victims of convict Afsal Guru.
I would like to welcome the statesmanship that Omar has shown in his
statement "I still not believe that hanging of Guru was a politics".
It is very rare to witness politicians making such a bold and true speech. Mr. Omar's speech is a big bolster to the unity of nation and will add confidence to the inclusiveness for Kashmiri's among other Indians. He has clearly slapped the extremists in their faces who are politicizing the punishment of Guru for their own sake. Hats of to Mr. Omar Abdullah and an inspiration to other politicians for much required clarity in their opinions and vision.
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