About an hour before he was hanged in Delhi’s Tihar Jail on February 9, Parliament attack case convict Afzal Guru wrote to his family, asking it to be bold and proud of the stature he would attain by his execution.
Guru’s wife Tabbasum on Sunday provided to The Hindu a copy of what is believed to be her husband’s last letter to the family. With his signature, the Superintendent of Central Jail No: 3 wrote to Ms Tabbasum vide No: J3/SCJ/AS (W)/2013 Dated 11-2-2013 that it was her husband’s original letter. “This is in continuation of our letter of 6-2-XIII. I am enclosing herewith the original letter written by late Sh Afzal Guru to you. Kindly acknowledge receipt.”
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The letter, according to the Guru family, has been dispatched through Speed Post in New Delhi on February 11 and delivered to Ms. Tabbasum at her home at Jageer village of Sopore at 11 a.m. on February 12. However, the family did not open or reveal its contents to anybody until February 17 evening.
The letter starts with the Koranic code of the beginning Bismillah-hir-rehman-nir-raheem (In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful) and is addressed to Guru’s family members and “all Believers” (of Allah), none by name.
A loose translation of the letter in Urdu reads: “[My] Respected family members and the Believers [of Allah]. May Allah’s blessings be upon you all. A hundred thousand gratitudes to Allah that He chose me for this stature. Also my greetings to all Believers [of Allah] that we all remained on the side of the truth and the right. May we all be on this path [of righteousness] and die for the truth and the right. This is my request to the members of my family that they should all respect the stature I have attained [by my execution] rather than nourishing a sense of loss and repentance on my death. May Allah be the saviour and the protector for all of you.”
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>Read Afzal Guru's last letter to his family