Srinagar/New Delhi: An angry J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Sunday slammed the execution of Afzal Guru and said this would reinforce a sense of alienation and injustice amongst a generation of youth in the Valley.
Abdullah also said that it was a “tragedy” that Afzal wasn’t 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 Afzal, the Chief Minister said that there were many questions that needed to be answered.
He observed that the longterm implications of Afzal’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 Bhat but will identify with Afzal Guru”.
Bhat, a Kashmiri separatist leader, was hanged in Tihar jail in 1984 for the murder of Indian diplomat Ravindra Mhatre in the UK.
“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 a category of people who will not receive justice,” Abdullah said in TV interviews.
“Whether you like it or not, the execution of Afzal Guru has reinforced the point that there is no justice for them and that, to my mind, is far more disturbing and worrying than the short-term implications,” he added.As long as the capital punishment exists on the statute there should be no “pick and choose“, He added.
Asked whether the UPA government went for selective execution of death row convicts by hanging Guru, Abdullah said it will have to be proved to Kashmiris and to the world that the execution of Afzal Guru is not a “selective“ one. “I had a sense that Afzal Guru would be executed sooner rather than later.
Generations of Kashmiris will identify with Afzal Guru. You will have to prove to the world that the death penalty is not used selectively. The onus rests on the judiciary and the political leadership to show that this wasn't a selective execution,” he said.
The Chief Minister, while agreeing that there were people who believe that Afzal’s trial was flawed, said there were enough voices in the rest of the country also who feel the same.
Abdullah said if the Centre wanted to protect itself from allegation that Afzal's hanging was political than legal, it will have to answer questions on other death row convicts.
Next: Curfew in Kashmir, no papers for 3 days            
 

Curfew in Kashmir, no papers for 3 days                                  
 
Srinagar: Indefinite curfew imposed on Saturday in almost all major Valley cities and towns following Afzal Guru’s execution on Saturday, continued uninterrupted on Sunday, with thousands of policemen and CRPF jawans in battle gear out on the streets to enforce restrictions.
Residential areas stayed sealed as the security forces laid concentra wires and put “bunker vehicles” or armoured cars criss-crossing the roads. The state authorities, after curtailing Internet access and debarring cable TV operators from beaming Indian and international news channels across the Kashmir Valley, on Sunday told local newspapers to suspend publication for three days. On Sunday, copies of half a dozen Urdu and English newspapers were seized as they were being transported out of their printing presses.
The blackout is part of the government’s effort to keep people in the dark about developments that followed the execution of Afzal Guru, convicted for his role in the 2001 terror attack on the Indian Parliament, in Delhi’s Tihar Jail on Satur-day and also to stop them from using social networking sites to voice anger or publishing hate comments.
Clashes after youth drowns in tense Valley
Clashes have erupted in Sumbal area of Jammu and Kashmir Gander-bal district after a youth, who defied curfew in the state after hanging of 2001 Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, drowned in the Jhelum while allegedly being chased by the security forces.
A police spokesman said six others were injured in Watergam area of Baramulla district while “tackling” law and order situation. The deceased has been identified as Tariq Ahmed Butt
Earlier Sunday, in stray violence in Guru’s native Sopore, at least three persons were injured, reports said. At Ladoora, on Sopore’s outskirts, a mob hurled stones on the ancestral house of former minister Javaid Dar, but the rest of the Valley remained by and large peaceful.
Contrary to fears, Guru’s hanging has not evoked any widespread violent response so far.
The state government, meanwhile, justified the news blackout saying its prime concern was the safety of the people, and public and private property as the situation following Guru's hanging could be exploited by vested interests.