It is the disregarded human aspect of the procedures adopted in the case of the recent hanging of Afzal Guru that appears to have caused emotional hurt in Kashmir, and not particularly the merits of the case.
Thus, the policy aimed at containing the fallout can hardly be divorced from this consideration, believe observers.
Consultation with a cross-section of opinion in Kashmir suggests that people are upset about the family not being informed of the execution in advance and being denied a last meeting, and the body not being given over to the family for customary funerary rights.
In addition is the further complaint that the official information to the Guru family was sent from New Delhi by speed post in an age in which such a mode has long been consigned to obsolescence. On all these counts, the Centre clearly has a lot to answer for.
Interestingly, unlike in other parts of the country, the discussion on the question of whether to have the death penalty on the statutes seems to be not an issue in the Valley.
The case of Afzal Guru — hanged in Delhi’s Tihar jail in February 2013 — and that of Maqbool Butt — hanged in the same premises in February 1984 — are seen as being quite apart. Unlike Afzal, Butt was a respected activist of the Kashmir cause and an acknowledged leader of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front. His execution caused a furore not only in JKLF ranks but also among ordinary people in Kashmir, especially in the urban areas.
It has been noted in Kashmir that instant protests, when the news of Afzal’s hanging was broadcast, were limited only to a few places (mainly those with which he was associated — such as Sopore and Baramulla).
The inner-city areas of Srinagar — locally called “downtown” — have traditionally been the hotbed of militant activity, often linked to pro-Pakistan sentiment on account of the Mirwaiz factor, but these did not erupt in the aftermath of Afzal’s execution in the Parliament House attack case.
Kashmiri observers do not fail to point this out. But across-the-board in Kashmir, it rankles people that Afzal’s body has not been released for burial in Kashmir. A grave has been kept ready for him in Srinagar’s “Martyrs’ Graveyard”. The authorities in Delhi did not release the body apprehending that the grave, if located in Kashmir, can become a rallying point for future protests and “a sort of pilgrimage”.
“But how long can such a state of affairs last?” ask the people in Kashmir. Many interred in the same public graveyard have long been forgotten and are mostly remembered now for making ritualistic references.
Those aligned to secular politics, or to a Kashmiri nationalist worldview, and even those who incline to a “pro-India” position, fret that Delhi’s mishandling of the Afzal Guru affair has made a “martyr” of someone who dabbled in the politics of Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and had occasional interaction with the BSF as well, a fact publicly acknowledged by some in his family.