Afzal 'sick' of delay in death penalty

[Spring Onion]

Afzal 'sick' of delay in death penalty


Afzal 'sick' of delay in death penalty
8 Jun 2008, 1130 hrs IST,IANS


NEW DELHI: On death row for the last three years, India's most controversial convict, Mohammed Afzal, wants a speedy conclusion to his ordeal and says Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate L K Advani would act swiftly in deciding his plight one way or the other while the present government is dilly-dallying his death sentence.

"I don't think the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government can ever reach a decision. The Congress party has two mouths and is playing a double game," said Afzal, convicted for the December 2001 Indian Parliament attack in an exclusive interview in Tihar prison's Jail No 3.

"I really wish L K Advani becomes India's next Prime Minister as he is the only one who can take a decision and hang me. At least my pain and daily suffering would ease then," said Afzal, who has been in solitary confinement in the capital's high security Tihar Jail.

Incidentally, Advani has criticised the delay in carrying out the death sentence.

"I fail to understand the delay. They have increased my security. But what needs to be done immediately is to carry out the court's orders," Advani had remarked in November 2006.

In this rare interview, Afzal's first since he was convicted by the Supreme Court in 2004 that was subsequently upheld a year later, he says the death sentence had made him delusional. He, too, has filed a mercy petition - along with 40 others - that is pending before the President.

"Life has become hell in the jail. I requested the government to take an immediate decision over my sentence just two months ago. I don't wish to be part of the living dead," said Afzal, whose moods swung frequently between being stoic and being defiant. "I have also requested that till the time they (government) take a decision, they shift me to a Kashmir jail," said Afzal, who now sports a long black beard.

Dressed in a spotless white kurta-pyjama and a sports cap to hide his shaven head, Afzal, who is in his mid-30s, said he sympathised with Sarabjit Singh, an Indian lodged in Pakistan prison for nearly two decades, but said no parallel could be drawn between the two of them.

"Please don't compare me with Sarabjit. The issues are separate. My sympathies are with him, but my fight is for the Kashmir conflict. Now, I am not even seeking any clemency and have no objection to the government deciding my fate."

Last month Home Minister Shivraj Patil's controversial statement saying those demanding Afzal's hanging could not seek reprieve for Sarabjit Singh drew considerable publicity.

"If you are asking for Afzal Guru's hanging, then how can you ask for pardon for Sarabjit Singh?" Patil had asked.

Sarabjit Singh has been held guilty for bombings in Lahore and Multan in 1990 that left 14 people dead. He was to be executed April 30. However, the intervention of the Indian government led to the execution being postponed by Pakistan.

Afzal, also known as Afzal Guru, was convicted of conspiracy in the December 2001 attack on India's Parliament that killed six security personnel and one civilian.
"I long for my eight-year-old son, Ghalib. In jail, it is not possible to meet them easily as intelligence officials unnecessarily harass my family and wife, Tabassum, when they come here," he remarked. In jail, Afzal is reading a book called India wins freedom by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad that details events of the country's independence movement.

There is pressure to issue clemency to Afzal from political groups in Kashmir, who believe hanging Afzal would have negative effects on the peace process in Kashmir. Human rights activists too have demanded a reprieve, as they believe that the trial was flawed.






Afzal 'sick' of delay in death penalty-India-The Times of India

 

[IceCold]

Its strange how the indian government has acted to stop the death of their Spy who was involved in the bombings of Lahore and Multan, while on the other hand no one speaks from our side if the same could be applied to Afzal. This is the value of our life left, the GOP doesnt give a ****, why would any one else bother. Afzal is right, his decision should be taken, if hes to be hanged, then why to wait. Believe me his hanging will have absolutely no effect on us, Sarabit would be released in either way. we have become a dead nation.

 

[Imran Khan]

this we say in urdu [ jangle ka qanon]

 

[BATMAN]

Their is indeed no parallel.

-Sarbjit is a terrorist whos aim was to civilians and was based on Hindu's hate towards Muslims.
-He was an employee of indian security force.
-He was trained and smuggled to Pakistan.
-indian PM had pleaded clemency for him.
-Sarbjit is fed well in custody.
-His family was given respect of a guest and were treated like state guest and were never harrased.

-Whereas Afzal was case of war with armed forces responsible of killing millions of Kashmiri men, women and children.
-He was merely an angry man seeking revenge for the deaths of kith and kin.
-He was a born indian.
-indian PM has not even bothered to responded to his request of cutting short his ordeal due to delay in the execution of his punishment.
-Afzal prefer death than every day torture in custody by hands of indian security forces, which apparently is continous even after his death sentence.
Afzal's indian wife and his indian son is subject to every day harassment by the hands of indian security agencies.

 

[Awesome]

This is BS.

India conducted the 2001 'attack' on itself to launch the 2002 offensive. It wasn't even an attack, other than a few security guards (who would be cannon fodder for the RAW planners) nothing really happened.

India needed an excuse to go to war and drag America along as well. America didn't bother, India backed off too. But not for 10 months, India kept requesting America to join in.

 

[Flintlock]

India conducted the 2001 'attack' on itself to launch the 2002 offensive. It wasn't even an attack, other than a few security guards (who would be cannon fodder for the RAW planners) nothing really happened.

And I suppose you have solid iron-clad proof for this outlandish theory.

 

[Awesome]

And I suppose you have solid iron-clad proof for this outlandish theory.

Common sense?

The fact that India wasted no time to pin it on Pakistan and mobilized a million troops for it? The fact that India had no iron-clad proof pinning it against Pakistan and still doesn't, but wanted war?

"But our aim should be victory, because it's now time for a decisive fight"

Do I need to tell you who said that? And still couldn't decide to go to war once America didn't join in?

 

[indiapakistanfriendship]

This is BS.

India conducted the 2001 'attack' on itself to launch the 2002 offensive. It wasn't even an attack, other than a few security guards (who would be cannon fodder for the RAW planners) nothing really happened.

India needed an excuse to go to war and drag America along as well. America didn't bother, India backed off too. But not for 10 months, India kept requesting America to join in.

I Didn't know you were working at Langley.

The fact that India wasted no time to pin it on Pakistan and mobilized a million troops for it? The fact that India had no iron-clad proof pinning it against Pakistan and still doesn't, but wanted wa

The attackers were Pakistani citizens , so whom would ou want us to blame, Siberia?

ndia needed an excuse to go to war and drag America along as well.

Blah blah .... India mobilised its troops because your country funded terrorists who shot down the women and children of army personnel, India mobilised because your country citizens attacked our seat of democracy.

India backed off too. But not for 10 months, India kept requesting America to join in.

Why don't you inform that to NYT, would have made an hellava story

 

[Spring Onion]

Take decision on Afzal Guru: BJP


After Parliament attack convict Mohammad Afzal Guru said he was tired of waiting for the government to take a decision on his mercy petition, the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Monday restated its position - hang him or give him clemency.
However, the ruling Congress has defended the delay on the ground that grant or rejection of a clemency petition was a constitutional process that would take time.
"Afzal Guru has called the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government indecisive and double-faced. We demand from the government that if the family of Afzal Guru has asked for clemency, it should either go ahead and give him clemency or reject it and hang him," BJP spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy said.
"This is a matter of national importance and the UPA is dragging its feet on it for a long time. The BJP charges the government of not taking a decision for votebank politics," he said. Afzal had filed his mercy petition Oct 4, 2006.
Rudy said family members of the security men who laid down their lives in the parliament attack Dec 13, 2001, have returned the gallantry medals in protest against the government's failure to hang Afzal.
Afzal in an exclusive interview to IANS said that he was fed up of waiting endlessly for the government to take a decision on his mercy petition. Afzal also said that if BJP leader LK Advani became the prime minister there were chances that he would take a decision and hang him.
The BJP also said that Afzal's case could not be compared to that of Sarabjit Singh, who is on death row in a Pakistan jail for his alleged involvement in bomb blasts in Multan and Lahore in 1990.
"The family members of Sarabjit Singh have said that if his case is compared to that of Afzal, then they would prefer not to seek clemency for Sarabjit," Rudy said.
Sarabjit's execution has been put off after the Indian government intervened on his behalf. Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil last month compared Afzal's case with Sarabjit, arguing that one could not seek clemency for Sarabjit while demanding that Afzal be hanged.
Criticising the comparison between Sarabjit and Afzal cases by Shivraj Patil, BJP president Rajnath Singh Monday said in Mumbai that the country wants to know why Afzal's hanging is being delayed.
The Congress defended the delay in taking a decision on the clemency plea.
"There is no authenticity of Afzal's statement, whether the interview was done with permission, and whether he actually said it or not. Rajnath Singh should know that is a constitutional process and hence it will take time," Congress spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan said.
Guru was given death sentence in the parliament attack case by the Supreme Court in 2004. Six security personnel and one civilian were killed in the attack. Five terrorists who mounted the attack also were killed.


Take decision on Afzal Guru: BJP- Hindustan Times

 

[Awesome]

The attackers were Pakistani citizens , so whom would ou want us to blame, Siberia?

Proof of that?

What is Afzal's nationality?

And to top it off this is the evidence they claim to have been found:

Afzal's cell phone number was found on each of the attackers, written on the backs of their unsealed paper ID's, in an identical hand, according to the Indian government's prosecutors in the case, though the policeman responsible for cataloging evidence on the scene at the time said he could not recall anything written on them. There were also cell phones and SIM cards on the attackers, and it was Afzal's cell phone records, or what the government purported were his cell phone records, that was primary evidence in his conviction.

So convenient. But its always been so easy for Indian investigators. They find Pakistani Shanakhti cards, Pakistani bubblegum, Pakistani Milk Pak cartons. (As if you don't get milk and gum from Indian stores).

Blah blah .... India mobilised its troops because your country funded terrorists who shot down the women and children of army personnel, India mobilised because your country citizens attacked our seat of democracy.

Then why stop with mobilization? If I murder your men, women and children would you just scream at me really loud and then go your own way? Attack dammit!

India gambled on the US emotions post 9/11 and lost. This is not a story, this is the predominant line of thought for everyone who is not Indian. Which is why no one really stood behind India during its war postures. Heck even your own home crowd, like Arundhati Roy, are questioning the official story.