NEW DELHI, Feb 9:
Mohammed Afzal Guru, convicted of involvement in the audacious attack on Parliament in 2001, was today hanged and buried in Delhi’s Tihar Jail, six days after a mercy plea was rejected by the President.
43-year-old Guru, a medical college drop out and resident of Sopore in North Kashmir, was executed at 8 am and buried in the prison premises in a secret operation.
On the death row for over 10 years after conviction for his role in aiding and abetting the attack, a special court had sentenced Guru to death in December 2002 which was upheld by the Supreme Court on August 4, 2005.
The body of Guru, who was found guilty of conspiring and sheltering the militants who attacked Parliament on December 13, 2001 in which nine people were killed, was buried in the prison premises as per the jail manual.
“Afzal Guru was hanged at 8 am,” Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde told reporters shortly after the execution. Guru was taken to the gallows at around 7.30 am and he appeared calm, a top Tihar Jail official said.
His family was informed about the decision of the Government that his mercy petition has been rejected. This was done through speed post, Union Home Secretary R K Singh said.
Guru’s mercy plea was rejected by President Pranab Mukherjee on February 3.
“I examined the file carefully and recommended to the President on January 21 for rejection of Afzal Guru’s petition,” the Home Minister said.
“We sent it to the President on January 21, 2013. On February 3, the President sent Guru’s file rejecting the mercy plea to the Home Ministry.
“I put my signature on February 4 and sent it for further execution to the department. The due procedure was followed and it was then decided that the hanging will take place on February 9 at 8 am,” Shinde said.
Similar to the hanging of Mumbai attack convict Ajmal Kasab, a Pakistani national, on November 21 last year, the execution of Guru, was kept under wraps in a top secret operation.
Guru is the second Kashmiri militant to be hanged after JKLF leader Maqbool Bhat who was executed on February 11, 1984 for the murder of Indian diplomat Ravindra Mhatre in United Kingdom.
The attack on Parliament had escalated Indo-Pak tensions with India scaling down diplomatic presence in Islamabad, revoked air links and mobilised troops along the western border.
Guru was sentenced to death along with Delhi University Professor S A R Gilani and Shaukat Hussain. Hussain’s wife Afsan was let off. Gilani was, however, let off by the High Court in 2003 while the sentence of Guru and Hussain was upheld.
The Supreme Court confirmed the death penalty of Guru in 2005 while in the case of Hussain, it was commuted to 10 years.
On December 13, 2001, five heavily-armed gunmen stormed the Parliament complex and opened indiscriminate fire, killing five Delhi Police personnel, a woman CRPF official, two Parliament watch and ward staff and a gardener.
A journalist, who was injured, died later. All five terrorists were shot dead by security forces.
Guru was arrested within hours after the attack from a truck in the national capital.
Guru was buried inside the prison complex soon after his execution.
“He (Guru) was buried near jail number three,” a top Tihar Jail official said.
Guru spent over 10 years on death row in the Tihar prison and was hanged at the jail at 8 am in an operation shrouded in secrecy.
The body of Guru was buried in Tihar Jail itself as it was done in the case of Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab, who was buried in Pune’s Yerwada jail soon after his execution.
The family of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru has been informed about his hanging by the Tihar authorities through Speed Post and the J&K Government was taken into confidence before his execution, the Centre said today.
“They (Tihar jail authorities) intimated the family through Speed Post, registered post and the DG (Director General of Jammu and Kashmir Police) has been told to check with the family whether they got it or not,” Union Home Secretary R K Singh told reporters here.
Singh said the J&K Government has been taken into confidence before Guru’s hanging early today.
“We are not having any apprehension anywhere in the country. In Jammu and Kashmir, the State Government is taking steps. We are in touch with them,” the Home Secretary said.
Without giving details, Singh said security has been intensified in some areas.
Official sources said Jammu and Kashmir Chief Secretary Madhav Lal and Director General of Police Ashok Prasad were called to the Home Ministry and the decision to hang Afzal Guru was conveyed to them.
The two top officials were told to take all possible steps to prevent any possible untoward incident in Jammu and Kashmir after Guru’s hanging, sources said.
Guru was remorseless when he was taken to the gallows in the morning.
Senior Tihar Jail officials, who oversaw the entire preparation for hanging of Guru, said he was “very peaceful” and “calm” during the final moments and did not appear repentant.
“He was very peaceful and calm during the final moments. He looked very composed,” a top Tihar Jail official told.
The official said Guru, who was lodged in Jail No.3 of the prison, was informed about his impending execution last evening and looked a “little shaken” thereafter.
A Magistrate, a doctor and senior prison officials were present during his execution.
Another official said Guru was woken up at around 5 am and was served tea. He offered Namaz immediately after getting up. “He was taken to the gallows at 7:30 am,” the official said.
Asked whether he was remorseless in his final moments, Director General of Prisons Vimla Mehra said, “He was happy and healthy. That answers your question.”
A doctor carried out a health check up of Guru before he was taken to gallows near his cell. Mehra said normal procedure was followed in the hanging.
His body was buried inside the prison complex soon after his execution. “He (Guru) was buried near Jail No.3 with full religious rites,” said another Tihar Jail official.
A Maulavi performed religious rites.
Guru spent over 10 years on death row in the Tihar prison after being convicted in the audacious attack on Parliament in 2001.
The jail authorities refused to share any details about whether he had any last wish or about any final words.
However, Guru’s lawyers Nandita Haksar and N Pancholi said his family was not informed about the Government decision to hang him.
The lawyers said the family came to know about Guru’s hanging only through news channels.
“The family was not informed about the decision. They came to know only through news channels. The family is in Sopore. They cannot come due to curfew,” the lawyers said.
Afzal Guru’s close contacts with slain ‘Fidayeen’ terrorists minutes before the attack on the Parliament coupled with circumstantial evidence proved beyond reasonable doubt that he was a party to the conspiracy and played an active part, the Supreme Court had said.
The apex court, in its August 4, 2005 verdict, had noted that just before the attack on Parliament on December 13, 2001, Guru had received calls on his mobile from one of the terrorists Mohammed at 10:43 am, 11:00 am and 11:25 am.
In its findings, the bench had said transcripts of the call details established that Mohammed had spoken to Guru that he along with others were going to execute the plan.
The bench also took into consideration that Guru was instrumental in providing hideout and accomodation to the terrorists at Gandhi Vihar and Indira Vihar in north Delhi and played the pivotal role in arranging the logistics including the purchase of chemicals used for preparing the explosives.
Guru had also identified the bodies of five terrorists, Mohammed, Haider, Hamza, Rana and Raja, killed during the gun battle by the security personnel inside Parliament complex.
The court had noted that evidence established that it was only Guru who was in contact with the terrorists and other three accused — S A R Geelani, the Delhi University college lecturer, his cousin Shaukat Hussain Guru and Afsan Guru alias Navjot Sandhu.
While upholding his conviction and death sentence, the apex court had relied on the interceptions and recoveries including the mobile phones and the money reached to Guru through hawala transaction with the help of terrorists.
“The circumstances detailed above clearly establish that appellant Afzal Guru was associated with the deceased terrorists in almost every act done by them in order to achieve the objective of attacking the Parliament House,” a bench comprising justices P V Reddi and P P Naolekar had said in the judgement.
The bench had said Guru established close contacts with the deceased terrorists, more especially Mohammed. Short of participating in the actual attack, he did everything to set in motion the “diabolic mission”.
“As is the case with most of the conspiracies, there is and could be no direct evidence of the agreement amounting to criminal conspiracy.
“However, the circumstances cumulatively considered and weighed, would unerringly point to the collaboration of the accused Afzal Guru with the slain ‘Fidayeen’ terrorists.
“The circumstances, if considered together, as it ought to be, establish beyond reasonable doubt that Afzal Guru was a party to the conspiracy and had played an active part in various acts done in furtherance of the conspiracy,” the bench had noted.
These circumstances cannot be viewed in isolation and by no standards of common sense, be regarded as innocuous acts, it said.
His conduct and actions, antecedent, contemporaneous and subsequent action, all point to his guilt and are only consistent with his involvement, it had noted.
“Viewed from another angle, the court can draw a presumption under Section 114 of Evidence Act having regard to the natural course of events and human conduct that the appellant Afzal had nexus with the conspirators who were killed and all of them together hatched the conspiracy to attack the Parliament House and in that process to use explosives and other dangerous means.
“We are, therefore, of the view that there is sufficient and satisfactory circumstantial evidence to establish that Afzal was a partner in this conspired crime of enormous gravity,” it had said. (PTI)
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