Srinagar, February 08 (KNO) : Tehreek-e-Hurriyat Chairman, Mohammad Ashraf Sehrai on Friday said termed the hanging of Afzal Guru as “travesty of justice and Humanity", stating that it was carried out to "appease the communal fascist forces.’
In a statement issued to KNO, Sehrai said that Guru had no lawyer to represent him when the trial court convicted him without any direct evidence and yet the Supreme Court upheld the death penalty in the name of satisfying 'the collective conscience of society' even as the High Court and the Supreme Court passed adverse remarks on the shoddy nature of investigation and dubious quality of evidence produced by the police while the ethical questions pertaining to death penalty are heavy on the conscience of many in the society,
“The hanging of Afzal Guru at the crack of dawn on 9 February2013, done in an extremely secretive manner without even informing his family, will be recognized by every justice-loving person as a case of justice being compromised to appease the communal fascist forces with an eye on the elections,” he said.
Further, he added that the conscience manufactured by the likes of VHP, Bajrang Dal, BJP and company have come to be labeled and accepted as national collective conscience by many. “It is these groups who are who are celebrating the death of Guru, exhibiting their triumphalism,” he said.
Sehrai said his mercy petition, which was pending with the then President for long was finally rejected and even before the family of Afzal Guru could get a chance to appeal against the turning down of plea for clemency, Guru was hanged.(KNO)