Mohammad Afzal Guru, a Kashmiri militant convicted and sentenced to death for his involvement in the 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament, was executed Saturday morning, in New Delhi.
Guru, who was convicted for hatching up the plot and sheltering those who attacked the Parliament, was hanged in Delhi's Tihar jail. He was on death row since 2002 and had denied his role in the conspiracy to attack, which resulted in the death of 14 people.
Indian home secretary RK Singh confirmed the news of Guru's execution saying, "This is only about the law taking its course." Indian President Pranab Mukherjee's spokesperson, Venu Rajamony said,"The mercy plea of Afzal Guru was rejected few days ago."
Al Jazeera reported that Guru, who was from Sopore town of Indian-administered Kashmir, was found guilty of being part of Jaish-e-Mohammad, a banned terrorist outfit, which is against Indian rule in the divided Himalayan region of Kashmir. The separatist conflict int he valley has claimed up to 100, 000 lives.
India blamed Pakistan for supporting the attackers who belonged to the banned Jaish-e-Mohammad group. But, Pakistan denied the allegations. This resulted in deployment of around one million military personnel on the borders of both the nuclear-armed countries.
Following the execution, India tightened the security and announced a curfew in 10 districts of Indian-administered Kashmir to avoid trouble from the separatists. Reports say that cable TV services have been disconnected. Authorities closed the national highway in Srinagar, capital of Jammu and Kashmir.
The Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah appealed for peace and calm, reported The New York Times. "I understand there is certain degree of angst and there are some people who would like to take advantage of the situation," Abdullah said. "I appeal to the people to allow us to get through this with peace and not to restore to violent protests.
The newspaper also reported that Congress Party officials said that the hanging of Guru indicates that India will not tolerate terrorism. "We have sent a message to the world that we cannot tolerate terrorism at any cost. Anybody committing any acts of terror will be punished," said Rashid Alvi, a Congress Party spokesperson. "People of our country and government have zero tolerance for terrorism."
Initially, along with Guru, a former student of Delhi University, Shaukat Hussain, and a college professor SAR Geelani had been convicted. But they were later acquitted due to lack of evidence.
India's main opposition right-wing party, the Bhartiya Janata Party, welcomed Guru's execution. "The entire opposition, the entire country was hoping that he should be hanged. This action is delayed but undoubtedly it's a welcome action," said the party spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy.
