An angry Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Sunday slammed the execution of Afzal Guru and said this would reinforce a sense of alienation and injustice among generations of youth in the Valley.
Mr. Omar also said it was a “tragedy”
that Guru was not allowed to meet his family before he was hanged and
not allowed a “final farewell”. The 43-year-old Parliament attack
convict was hanged and buried in Tihar jail premises in Delhi in a
secret operation on Saturday.
Clearly unhappy with the hanging of Guru, the Chief Minister said there were many questions that needed to be answered.
Mr.
Omar observed that the long-term implications of the hanging of Guru’s
hanging were “far more worrying” as they were related to the new
generation of youth in Kashmir “who may not have identified with Maqbool
Bhatt but will identify with Afzal Guru.” Bhat was hanged in 1984 for
murder of Indian diplomat Ravindra Mhatre in the U.K.
“Please
understand that there is more than one generation of Kashmiris that has
come to see themselves as victims, that has come to see themselves as
category of people who will not receive justice,” Mr. Omar said in TV
interviews.
“Whether you like it or not, the
execution of Afzal Guru has reinforced that point that there is no
justice for them and that to my mind is far more disturbing and worrying
than the short-term implications for security front.
How
we would be able to correct or address that sense of injustice and
alienation is a question I do not have answers,” he added.
Asked
about the official position of the ruling National Conference on the
hanging, Mr. Omar said, “Obviously we would have it rather had not
happened.”
Expressing himself against death penalty
Mr. Omar said, “I have no bloodlust.” Mr. Omar said as long as the
capital punishment exists on the statute there should be no “pick and
choose.”
According to The Indian Muslim Post, the manner in which the execution was planned and carried out by the government was wrong.
According to The Indian Muslim Post, the manner in which the execution was planned and carried out by the government was wrong.
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