The demand of the National Conference, the Opposition party in Jammu & Kashmir, for return of Afzal Guru’s mortal remains to his family, has drawn flak from the mainstream and separatist parties in Jammu and Kashmir.
Guru, the Parliament attack case convict, was secretly hanged and buried in Tihar Jail in 2013. The Union government refused to shift his body to Kashmir, fearing that his funeral might spark an anti-India agitation.
‘Weak defence’The demand, made by NC spokesperson Aga Syed Ruhhullah Mehdi on Friday, drew severe criticism from the ruling People’s Democratic Party as well as the separatist camp. The hanging took place in 2013, when the National Conference was in power. The NC’s defence was that the Central government didn’t inform the State of Guru’s hanging, but his subsequent burial in Tihar and the party’s unwillingness to bring his mortal remains back has been criticised.
“It is a laughable statement because they [the NC] were facilitators of this [hanging],” PDP spokesperson Naeem Akhtar said. “They worked as the hangman, and did not even ensure the last-minute meeting of the family with Afzal Guru.”
