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| Should Mohammad Afzal Be Hanged To Death? | | |
So ask all the the mainstream parties in J&K, barring the BJP, pleading for a Presidential pardon for the convict in Parliament Attack case, as Black Warrants for October 20 (the last Friday of Ramzan) lead to massive protests in the state. More Coverage
Ever since a Delhi court issued the "Black Warrant" — the warrant of execution — on September 26 for Mohammad Afzal, the main accused in the Parliament Attack case and ordered that the convict be hanged at 0600 hours in the Tihar jail premises on October 20, the situation in Jammu and Kashmir had been described as tense.
The execution date was set by the trial court nearly four years after it had sentenced Afzal to death on December 18, 2002. The punishment was later confirmed by the Delhi High Court, and the Supreme Court too had confirmed the sentence on August 4, 2005.
While Mohammad Afzal, allegedly of the Jaishe-e-Mohammad (JeM) terrorist group, had not filed any appeal for clemency, legal experts had suggested that he could move a mercy petition before the President even a day before the date of execution.
There had been immediate expressions of concern from those in the know of Kashmir politics that since October 20 would coincide with Jumat-ul-Vida (the last Friday of Ramzan) the date had been very unwisely chosen, as it could be used to instigate trouble in the valley. Experts had warned that the least that could have been done was to have thought through the impact on public sentiment in J&K. While Delhi was still to come to grips with the implications, agitation in the valley had already started.
And seeing the agitation and public mood, the ruling coalition politicians — including Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti — have lent their support to the demand that Mohammad Afzal, sentenced to death for the 2001 terror attack on Parliament, be pardoned.
Highly placed official sources say that the J&K Chief Minister has cited public sentiments in the Kashmir Valley and requested the Prime Minister to use his good offices to obtain Presidential clemency for Afzal. Mehbooba Mufti, whose PDP is part of the ruling coalition, has also called for a review of Afzal's death sentence, saying it could affect the peace process in Kashmir. "I'll suggest that all (political parties)— the Congress, National Conference and PDP and other mainstream parties— should together appeal to the President to change this sentence from death to life imprisonment," she said.
The CPI-M has agreed, demanding a review of the death sentence, on the grounds that the step would hamper the peace process in the subcontinent. Former chief minister, Farooq Abdullah of National Conference has also joined in, arguing that Afzal's hanging could create further unrest: "On humanitarian grounds, don't hang him. You can keep him in jail," he said.
Meanwhile, the Congress party in Delhi is caught on the backfoot. For a party which is under constant attack for not being firm on terror, there seems to have been no home-work done on how to handle the tricky question. In the month of Ramzan, the party would rather keep a safe distance from such a controversial topic, so it is imperative for it to balance the sentiment in the valley against that in the rest of the country. Which is why there was total funk on how to handle the news of Ghulam Nabi Azad's request.
A perfect cue for the BJP to enter the fray: "Looking at the demands made by Ghulam Nabi Azad and the Congress, it becomes clear that the Congress is not serious about fighting terrorism," BJP chief Rajnath Singh was quick to charge. "This shows, both of them (the Congress and the Left) treat the issue very lightly." Party spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad had earlier been strident in his demand: "The apex court has awarded this punishment (to Afzal) after a three-tier judicial scrutiny. The exercise of power of pardon lies with the government.
We would like to know what the government has to say about it"
All that the Congress Spokesperson, Abhishek Manu Singhvi could offer was: "Well, it’s the prerogative of the President and there is a constitutional procedure".
Meanwhile, Afzal's wife Tabasum had earlier announced her decision to approach the President on behalf of her children and Afzal's mother and make an appeal for mercy. Tabasum, a nurse by profession, who, along with her father and son met Afzal last in Tihar jail on August 12 told reporters who visited her house at Doubgah village in Sopore, 55 km from Srinagar that Afzal "has lost faith in the judiciary and is unwilling to file an appeal before the President". "He would prefer to go to the gallows rather than appeal against the sentence," she maintains, but is hopeful that she would be able to persuade him to change his mind. "My husband is innocent and implicated deliberately in the case. We want him back with us. We are hopeful that the President will hear our appeal," she maintains.
Her father, Ghulam Mohammad, says that Afzal was unwilling to file a clemency petition as "it would mean that he had accepted the charges against him although he had not committed the crime.." He quoted Afzal, "When I have no hand in the Parliament attack case, why should I file a mercy petition?" And then he tried to rationalises: "If God has written his death, nobody can save him."
The question is, will President Kalam pardon Afzal? What he finally decides to do in the case would obviously be under the scanner. He had rejected the mercy petition of Dhananjay Chatterjee —convicted of raping and murdering a teenage girl in West Bengal — in August 2004, despite the massive campaign against the death penalty. The last hanging that took place in Tihar jail was on January 6, 1989, when Satwant Singh and Beant Singh — accused in the killing of former prime minister Indira Gandhi — were executed.
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