Omar Abdullah 'not challenging' decision to hang Afzal Guru: Digvijaya Singh

Posted on Feb 12, 2013 at 02:58am IST

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New Delhi: Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on Monday said that Chief Minister Omar Abdullah was "not challenging" the decision to hang Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru and felt that it was "not fair" if the last wish of the convict was not granted.

"For anyone who has to be hanged, there are certain proceedures, certain rules under which the person has the last wish and that has to be granted. I am not privy to what has gone through.

"The last wish of the accused has to be granted and if this is not being done, it is not fair. What Omar is saying is specifically this. He is not challenging the decision (to hang Afzal Guru)," the Congress general secretary said. 

His remarks came a day after Omar said that the execution of Afzal Guru would reinforce a sense of alienation and injustice among generations of youth in the Valley and that it was a "tragedy" that Guru was not allowed to meet his family before he was hanged and not allowed a "final farewell". The 43-year-old Parliament attack convict was hanged and buried in Tihar jail premises in Delhi in a secret operation on Saturday.

At the AICC briefing, party spokesperson Sandip Dikshit also said that "the jail manual should be followed and whatever action has to be taken should be according to it. "According to the Home Minister s statement, a letter was sent on February 7 and he said that the family should have known by February 8. I have only heard this statement of the Home Minister and I am not aware of what really transpired on the ground," he said in reply to a volley of questions on why family members of the Parliament attack convict were not informed about his hanging in time.

To a question on return of Afzal Guru s body to his family, he merely said this matter should be left to the government. Dikshit also said that the trial was fair and three courts have held him guilty and the Supreme Court affirmed his death sentence. "So, I think we must accept what the Supreme Court has said because it is the best judge of whether somebody is guilty or not".

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/omar-abdullah-not-challenging-decision-to-hang-afzal-guru-digvijaya-singh/372263-37-64.html