The government is giving serious thought to whether it should permit Mohammad Afzal Guru’s family members to visit his grave in the precincts of Tihar Jail, and offer prayers.
A day after the prime accused in the attack on Parliament in 2001, was executed, government sources said the jail authorities had received such a request from the family, routed through his lawyers: the authorities have now forwarded it to the Union Home Ministry for a decision.
This comes even as the Home Ministry is under fire for not having informed the family members in advance of the decision to execute him, nor permitting a last visit. Union Home Secretary R.K. Singh had merely said on Saturday that a letter to that effect had been sent by speedpost; the family says they never got the letter.