Drishtikone
Who is Mohammad Afzal? He was to be hanged for being the mastermind of the attack on Indian Parliament on December 13, 2001. This is what Wikipedia pitches in with:
Mohammad Afzal is a Kashmiri accused and convicted of conspiracy to storm the Indian parliament in December 2001. In 2004, he was sentenced to death by the Supreme Court of India. The sentence was to be carried out on 20 October, 2006. The sentance is now stayed, after his family filed a mercy petition to the the President.
There is a lot of pressure to issue clemency to Afzal from poltical parties in Kashmir, who believe hanging Afzal would have negative effects on peace process in Kashmir. Others believe the trial process was flawed. Accusations of human rights violations have been made by Afzal’s wife.
During the joint attack, believed to have been conducted by the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET) and the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JEM) of Pakistan seven members of the security forces, including a lady constable, were killed.
The police case was based on the stormers of Parliament having been in contact over their mobile phones just before the attack with Afzal in Srinagar, and on an apparent confession made by the accused.
The Supreme Court of India accordingly ordered that Mohammed Afzal be hanged on October 20. He was charged with concealing the conspiracy of the attack on Parliament.
Those seeking a moderation of the death sentence, awarded only rarely in India, focus on three points: First, two of the investigating police officers were later charged with corruption, which Afzal’s advocates say calls into question their credibility in the Afzal case. Second, it is claimed that his confession was wrested in police custody without him having been offered the presence of a lawyer, a breach of Indian law; the confession should then be inadmissible. Third, they maintain that he underwent the entire trial without legal counsel of his choice.[1]
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad of the Congress, Communist and local groups have come out in support of clemency for Afzal. The Bharatiya Janata Party strongly opposes clemency, as do advocacy groups for Kashmiri Pandits worldwide.
This is what an article in Milli – claiming to be Indian Muslims’ largest newspaper says:
At best Guru was facilitator in the crime and not a part of directly perpetrating the crime. Supreme Court notes, that “The incident, which resulted in heavy casualties, had shaken the entire nation and the collective conscience of the society will only be satisfied if capital punishment is awarded to the offender.” So does it mean that the punishment is being given to assuage the collective national conscience? One must add what is presented as this conscience is the consciousness of the section of dominant middle classes.
All I can say is these analysts need some more training in story telling. Life is never so one-track as they portray Afzal’s to be. Pained Kashmiri youth-turned terrorist-turned informer-turned reborn terrorist… isnt that too simple? Are the influences so straight-forward? Are influences so unidimensional??
Ok, what about the Kashmiri Pandits then? By the standards of the Muslim Kashmiri Youth’s pain they have suffered a great deal too – probably more!! From BOTH, the Kashmiri Muslims AND the Indian Govt!! Do I hear anyone nominating that community for Nobel Peace Prize .. ANYONE???? …. because if the pain-to-violence standards of Muslim youth in South Asia is anything to go by… Kashmiri Pandit youth should have been bombing Pakistanis and Kashmiri Muslims every othere hour – monetarily backed, of course by VHP’s NRI money!! Is that so??
And btw, while we are at it.. can someone do a similar piece for the pained Dr. Narender Modi.. please?? Or does this pain-to-violence have to have a religion to be a kosher combo??
You know, anyone can claim an animalistic action-reaction kind of a mentality and argue for Abuse against them when anyone takes action…. but it takes a lot of strength to segregate one’s REACTION from ACTION! A lot of Muslim youth in Kashmir and Pakistan have FAILED miserably in that. Too bad.
I dont think there is any need to treat such animalistic they-acted-so-I-killed perpetrators to anything different. Let them have their own medicine… One Prithviraj Chauhan and Jaswant Singh were enough for this nation.. please!
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