Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said Afzal’s execution was not a political decision but done according to rules.
“In the cases of Rajiv Gandhi and the Chief Minister, 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’s case) is different from these cases,î he told a press conference.
He was responding to questions why the government showed tearing hurry in executing Afzal Guru while the killers of Rajiv Gandhi and Beant Singh were given options. Omar also had said on Sunday that it will have to be proved to Kashmiris and to the world that the execution of Afzal Guru is not a “selective” one. Omar had asked if the attack on Parliament was an attack on symbol of democracy, is not the attack on Chief Minister and former Prime Minister an attack on democracy too.
Incidentally Shinde also said that the government will consider any request by the family of Afzal to visit his grave inside the Tihar jail where he was buried after his hanging on Saturday. “If they want to go (to the grave), it can be considered,” Shinde said. The family of 43-year-old Afzal has expressed a desire to offer at least “fathiah namaz” (prayer at the grave) and take his belongings. Cornered over the government’s failure to intimate the family, Shinde waved the xerox copy of the speedpost receipt saying “two speedposts within the gap of 10 minutes were sent on the evening of February seven.” However, Post Master General of Jammu and Kashmir Circle John Samuel said in Srinagar that the letter was sent from Delhi on February 8 and received in Srinagar on February nine.
According to the official website of India Post, a speed post from national capital to any part of the country other than metropolitan cities like Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai Hyderabad and Bengaluru will take four to six days.
Meanwhile, a youth shot in firing by security forces during protests in the Kashmir Valley against the hanging of Afzal died early on Monday taking the death toll to three since clashes broke out on Saturday.
Jammu and Kashmir government announced a magisterial inquiry into the incidents leading to the death of the three youths during the protests, as the Valley remained under curfew for the third day on Monday.
“Concerned DCPs and SSPs (of Ganderbal and Baramulla districts) were directed to lodge FIRs and conduct magisterial enquiry into the death cases immediately,” an official spokesman said.
The situation on Monday was peaceful with no reports of any untoward incident from anywhere in the Valley, sources said. Ubaid Mushtaq, who was injured in firing by security forces in Baramulla on Sunday, succumbed to injuries on Monday.
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