Omar opposes out of turn hanging of Afzal Guru

JAMMU - The law should “take its own course” in the hanging of Afzal Guru, the mastermind of the 2001 attack on the Indian parliament, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said Tuesday.

“Let the law take its own course. He has gone in for an appeal and his name figures at number 30, let’s first talk about 29 who are in line before him,” Abdullah told reporters in Nagrota, 13 km from here, after addressing a rally of ex-servicemen.

“Why bring his name all the time and give a hype to it… simply because his name is too glamorous?” he asked the reporter who had posed a question.

Afzal Guru, a resident of Sopore in the Kashmir Valley, was found guilty of plotting the terror attack on the Indian parliament on Dec 13, 2001. The Supreme Court upheld his death sentence in October 2006.

Afzal Guru, whose mercy petition is pending before President Pratibha Patil, was again in the spotlight after a Mumbai court last week sentenced Pakistani national Ajmal Amir Kasab to death for his role in the November 2008 terror attack in Mumbai.

Kashmiri leaders fear that Afzal Guru’s hanging could destabilise the situation in the valley.