FLASHBACK ::: Terrorists targeted Indian Parliament on Dec 13, 2001 :: Afzal Guru was executed on Feb 4th, 2013 when MMS was PM and Sushilkumar Shinde was Home Minister

The UPA Govt - known for Muslim appeasement - faced tough times around 2013 and hanged Afzal Guru.

His family in Kashmir said they were not informed of his imminent execution, in violation of international standards on the use of the death penalty. The body was also not returned to the family for last rites and burial, in violation of international standards. 

The Supreme Court verdict had said - "The incident, which resulted in heavy casualties, had shaken the entire nation, and the collective conscience of society will only be satisfied if capital punishment is awarded to the offender."

(It happens only with Sickularism gang. "The hanging of Afzal Guru is a stain on India's democracy," wrote Arundhati Roy for London's 'The Guardian' (Feb 10, 2013) 

Two days after the incident, on Dec 15, 2001, Delhi police Spl Cell arrested the "mastermind" - Professor SAR Geelani in Delhi.

Showkat Guru and his cousin Afzal Guru were arrested in Srinagar subsequently.

Afsan Guru, Showkat's wife, was also held.

"Delhi university lecturer was terror plan hub", 

"Varsity don guided fidayeen" and  

"Don lectured on terror in free time" -- were some of the headlines those screamed in English newspapers. 

Afzal was convicted in the December 2001 attack on Parliament, and was sentenced to death by a special Prevention of Terrorism Act Court in 2002. 

The Delhi High Court confirmed the judgment in 2003 and his appeal was rejected by the Supreme Court of India in 2005. The sentence was scheduled to be carried out on 20 October 2006, but Afzal was given a stay of execution and remained ondeath row. 

On 3 February 2013, his mercy petition was rejected by the President Pranab Mukherjee. 

The execution order was signed by the Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde on February 4.

Indian authorities had accused Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) – two militant groups operating from Pakistan – of perpetrating the attack.

LeT denied involvement.

In 2013, the convict Afzal Guru charged with waging war against India was executed with the capital punishment on February 9th in a rather secret operation during the tenure of Dr Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister and Pranab Mukherjee as the President of India.  

As happens with issues related to SICKULARISM, the hanging of Afzal had turned controversial with allegations that the decision was taken by the Congress-party led coalition regime owing to political considerations desperate to be seen as performing with general elections due next year.

“The tearing hurry with which Afzal Guru was hanged, accompanied by the flouting of all established norms by not giving his family their legal right to meet him before taking him to the gallows, clearly indicates that there were political considerations behind taking this step,” the People’s Union of Civil Liberties, a renowned rights group, said in a statement (2013).

Even as ruling Congress party and other political parties like the principal opposition BJP and Marxists have backed the government move terming it as culmination of the due legal process, sensing trouble in his militancy-hit state of Jammu and Kashmir, Omar Abdullah, the chief minister said there were several questions that needed to be answered.

“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 in television interview.  

He has obliquely referred to the Tamil killers of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and Sikh killers of a former Punjab chief minister. He also distanced himself from the move of the federal government even as his party is a part of the ruling Congress-led United Progressive Alliance.

"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,” he said.

Questions have been mostly raised on the manner decided to inform Afzal’s family about the execution decision through a Speed Post.

“More shameful is the explanation of the Home department that the wife and family of Afzal Guru were intimated of the hanging by a mail sent by Speed Post,” the PUCL said. These views were endorsed by chief minister Abdullah also.  

Arundhati Roy also write in her article for 'The Guardian' ---

"In a moment of rare unity the Indian nation, or at least its major political parties – Congress, the Bharatiya Janata party and the Communist party of India (Marxist) – came together as one (barring a few squabbles about "delay" and "timing") to celebrate the triumph of the rule of law. 

Live broadcasts from TV studios, with their usual cocktail of papal passion and a delicate grip on facts, crowed about the "victory of democracy". Rightwing Hindu nationalists distributed sweets to celebrate the hanging...". 

She also wrote -- 

"The real story and the tragedy of what happened to Guru is too immense to be contained in a courtroom. The real story would lead us to the Kashmir valley, that potential nuclear flashpoint, and the most densely militarised zone in the world".  

In 2016, there was a so-called students' protest ostensibly to embarrass the Modi Govt.

Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested and remanded in custody. Kumar was arrested after organising a rally against the 2013 hanging of Mohammed Afzal Guru. Kumar later joined CPI and is now a Congress leader. 

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