K’s Opposition Party National Conference Demands Return of Afzal Guru’s Remains

It looks like ghost of Afzal Guru who was hanged in 2013, returns to haunt Modi-led government which is in the power both at the Centre and in the Jammu and Kashmir.

The ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Monday slammed National Conference (NC) for demanding mortal remains of parliament attack convict, Muhammad Afzal Guru, and claimed that former Chief Minister (CM) Omar Abdullah decided the date and venue of Guru’s hanging. Afzal Guru’s body was not handed over to his family members but buried in the Tihar jail. Mehdi said the system of justice can not have different interpretations for different people.

He said the system can not differentiate based on biased presumptions and politics, and such glaring double standards between Yakub Memon’s and Afzal Guru’s cases highlighted the perception of discrimination among people of Kashmir.

Independent legislator engineer Rasheed who has been demanding mortal remains of Guru from day one and even has organized protests and brought resolutions in the state assembly said that by denying the mortal remains of Guru to his family, the government of India has “proved once again” that the J&K is a “different state”.

A senior official said trends in social media suggested that many young Muslim youths feel that hanging of 1993 Mumbai blasts convict Yakub Memon could have been avoided and that he was singled out because of his religion.

Mir said that the sensitivities of Afzal’s family should be taken into account and parties should desist from abusing this issue for scoring political points. “What justice is it to deprive a young child of the dead body of his father?”, NC spokesperson Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi was quoted by a daily.

“If the death sentences of killers of the then Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh and Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi were commuted to life imprisonment, why was the whole Indian Establishment eager to hang Afzal Guru”. In the past, the political parties in the valley have demanded that the remains should be returned.