Mohammed Afzal

Mohammad Afzal, (also referred to as Afzal Guru, Afzal Guru and Mo Afzal), was convicted of conspiracy in the December 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament and was sentenced to death by the Supreme Court of India in 2004. The sentence was scheduled to be carried out on 20 October 2006. Afzal was given a stay of execution and remains on death row.

An article on this subject was deleted on Wikipedia: Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/ Mo Afzal WP administrators can restore the edit history of this page upon request

WP+ DEL

The case

Eighty witnesses were examined for the prosecution and ten were examined for defense. The judgment mentions:

"The incident, which resulted in heavy casualties, has shaken the entire nation and the collective conscience of the society will be satisfied if the capital punishment is awarded to the offender."

The prosecution's case

The attack was conducted jointly by the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET) and the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JEM) Kashmiri militant separatist groups. Seven members of the security forces, including a female constable, were killed, as were the five still incompletely identified men who carried out the attack.??

Afzal's cell phone number was found on each of the attackers, written on the backs of their unsealed paper IDs, in an identical hand, according to the Indian government's prosecutors in the case. There were also cell phones and Wikipedia:SIM cards on the attackers, and it was Afzal's cell phone records.

The police case was based on evidence that the individuals who participated on the terrorist attack on Indian Parliament on 13 December 2001 had been in contact with Afzal in Wikipedia:Srinagar just prior to the operation, and on an apparent confession made by the accused.

Pressure for clemency

There is an appeal to issue Wikipedia:clemency to Afzal from various human rights groups including political groups in Kashmir, who believe that Afzal Guru did not receive a fair trial and was subject to a frame up of corrupt and inefficient police work. Human rights activists in various parts of India and the world have demanded reprieve as they believe that the trial was flawed. Wikipedia:Arundhati Roy and Wikipedia:Praful Bidwai castigated the trial and argued that Afzal has been denied natural justice. Accusations of human rights violations have been made by many.

Former Wikipedia:Jammu and Kashmir Wikipedia:Chief Minister Wikipedia:Ghulam Nabi Azad of the Wikipedia:Indian National Congress, Communist and local political groups voiced their support of clemency for Afzal. It is alleged many have done so to appease Wikipedia:Muslim voters in India.

Wikipedia:Ram Jethmalani holds that it is completely within the President's power to commute the Death sentence and is not a mercy plea. He says, "It’s a misnomer to call it a mercy petition. It leads to total misunderstanding of the constitutional power. The constitutional power is that the President has the power to disagree with the Supreme Court both with its findings of fact and law."

But other are of the view that such a sweeping Constitutional power cannot be given to the President inasmuch as it would subvert the concept of justice enshrined in the Constitution.

The Wikipedia:Jammu and Kashmir People's Democratic Party president and MP, Mehbooba Mufti commented that the Centre should pardon Afzal if Pakistan accepted the clemency appeal for Wikipedia:Sarabjit Singh.

Ms. Mufti, said that if clemency appeals were made for Sarabjit citing his Indian nationality, voices should also be raised for Afzal for "he too is an Indian citizen. "Two citizens of India cannot be treated with different yardsticks" she had said.

However, the Wikipedia:All India Anti-Terrorist Front Chairman M.S. Bitta has urged the Wikipedia:President of India not to accept any clemency pleas on Afzal's behalf. He warned that his organisation would launch agitations if Afzal was pardoned. He also criticised statements of various political leaders and blamed them for "encouraging activities of militants in Jammu and Kashmir".

An Wikipedia:India Today poll in late October showed that 78% of Indians supported the death penalty for Afzal

On 12 November 2006, the former Deputy Prime Minister of India, Mr. Wikipedia:Lal Krishna Advani criticized the delay in carrying out the death sentence on Guru for the Parliament terror attack, saying, "I fail to understand the delay. They have increased my security. But what needs to be done immediately is to carry out the court's orders".

The Wikipedia:Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has severely criticized Wikipedia:Arundhati Roy. BJP spokespoerson Wikipedia:Prakash Javadekar said:

"Those who are supporting Afzal by demanding that he should not be hanged are not only acting against public sentiment in the country but are giving a fillip to terrorist morale,"

On the 23nd of June 2010, the Ministry of Home Affairs has recommended the President's office to reject the mercy petition.
On the 7th of January 2011, a whisleblowing site indianleaks.in has leaked a document which states that the mercy petition file is not with President of India.

See also

• Wikipedia:2001 Indian Parliament attack
• Wikipedia:Maulana Masood Azhar
• Wikipedia:Indian Airlines Flight 814
• Wikipedia:Ajmal Amir

External links

• Bitta urges President not to pardon Afzal
• Clemency-seekers weakened Afzal's defence
• Terror needs direct response