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| Afzal Guru's fate generating heat | | Farooq Abdullah joins debate | | SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
NEW DELHI, OCT. 14: To hang or not to hang? The debate over Parliament attack plotter, Mohammad Afzal Guru's fate is generating a lot of heat. While voices of dissent have emerged from the Kashmir Valley-– Chief Minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad, even reportedly approached Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, seeking Afzal’s clemency – there have been hot protests in Delhi and elsewhere.
The latest political figure to join in the debate is former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister, Farooq Abdullah.
Abdullah has warned that the hanging of Mohammed Afzal, convicted for the 2001 attack, would turn him into a "a hero" and provide "a massive weapon to the separatists".
In an exclusive interview to CNN-IBN’s Karan Thapar on Devil’s Advocate, Farooq Abdullah argued that if clemency was not shown to Afzal "you will be making him a hero for centuries to come". Afzal is due to be hanged on Oct 20. "He's a man who is least important at this time. Secondly, you are going to give a massive weapon to the separatists in Jammu and Kashmir. The separatists are (already) saying this is the way they (India) treat Kashmiris," Abdullah said.
Taking a rather contradictory statement, Farooq Abdullah first insisted that Afzal was "innocent", and later on went to assert that the conviction was correct but the punishment "extreme". "The unfortunate problem is the lower court, which had given the sentence. If he (Afzal) had got the right lawyer at that stage I am confident that his case would have been proved that he is not directly involved in this", said Farooq.
Farooq Abdullah claimed that another consequence of hanging Afzal would be the damage to the India-Pakistan peace process. The National Conference leader even feared that if Afzal is hanged the judges who convicted and sentenced him could be "murdered". "Some crook will come and murder them," he said.
He was apprehensive that Afzal's hanging could send India "up in flames" and "destroy the relationship between the Hindus and Muslims here". "This nation will go up in flames because the terrorists will do such things which will destroy the relationship between the Hindus and Muslims here. Kashmir will anyway go up in flames. There will be turmoil which India will have to face", Farooq Abdullah said.
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