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| Farooq contradicts Omar, says hanging as per procedure | | Gandhi, Beant cases are different: Shinde | |
Early Times Report
NEW DELHI, Feb 11: It seems former Chief Minister Dr Farooq Abdullah and his son have agreed to disagree with each other on issues concerning the State. Omar in an interview with a news channel on Sunday urged the Government of India to prove that Guru hanging was not selective. He also urged New Delhi to apply the same yardstick to Rajiv Gandhi and Beant Singh killers.
However, Dr Farooq Abdullah while addressing media persons at New Delhi today said the Guru was hanged as per procedure.
"Afzal Guru's mercy petition was put before President. He rejected it. The matter is over," Abdullah told reporters here.
Farooq said he was pained like all Kashmiris to know that the family members of Guru were not allowed to meet him. "Had it been done, the Government would have flown them to Delhi in the State helicopter", he said.
Meanwhile, the Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde while dismissing Omar's suggestion that the hanging as selective said it was not politically motivated and was done as per rules. He was addressing a press conference in the national capital today.
"Usually the President signs on the mercy petition and the Home Ministry send it for execution. Even in the other cases, the files were sent to the States concerned. There they (convicts) went for appeal," he said.
"The cases of killers of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh were different. In the cases of Rajiv Gandhi and Beant Singh, the cases are still pending in Supreme Court. After rejection (of the mercy petitions) cases were filed in the Madras High Court and Supreme Court. These cases are still under consideration before the judiciary. Hence it (Afzal) is different from these cases," he said.
Shinde said he had informed Omar about the hanging on Friday night. "That was the first time I told him that we are doing it tomorrow morning", he revealed.
Justifying the hush-hush manner in which the execution was carried out, he said the issue was sensitive and secrecy had to be maintained. He said the jail authorities must have informed Guru's family as per the jail manual.
When a reporter asked why the execution was done in secrecy if death penalty was to act as a deterrent, he said police investigations and intelligence operations cannot be done in open. "If that is done, the country will not run."
Shinde said he was not aware of illegal detention of Iftikhar Geelani, a journalist. "I have arrived from Meghalaya today and will enquire into it now", he said.
Geelani was detained at his father-in-law and separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani's house here on the day of hanging. He was, however, later allowed to go.
He said the matter of Sarabjeet Singh had been taken up with the Pakistan Interior Minister.
Responding to a question as to whether any action will be taken against JKLF leader Yaseen Malik for sharing dais with Lashkar-e-Toiba chief Hafeez Saeed while sitting on a hunger strike in Pakistan, he said "I will look into the case." |
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