Let GoI return Afzal Guru’s remains if Shinde is remorseful of his execution: Family

SRINAGAR: The family of Mohammad Afzal Guru, on Thursday said that if India’s Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde was really remorseful about the handling of Guru’s execution, he should return his mortal remains to family.
“If Shinde is so remorseful on the handling of Afzal Guru’s execution by his department, then the government of India should return his body,” Aijaz Guru, brother of Afzal Guru was quoted as saying by a local news agency, KNS.
Aijaz said that Shinde’s remarks were “simply a poll gimmick.”
“The statement has been made keeping in view the ensuing Parliament elections in India, especially in Kashmir where the Congress has aligned with National Conference,” he said.
He also flayed Kashmir’s pro-India political parties for using Afzal Guru’s name “to reap political benefits.”
“If chief minister Jaya Lalitha and Punjab government could save their citizens from gallows, why did the pro-India parties of Kashmir failed to do so,” Aijaz added.
The brother of Afzal said that his family wants that Guru’s body be returned as soon as possible.
He asked pro-India and pro-freedom political parties, civil society, lawyers’ bodies, and “all those who matter” to raise their voice in support of return of Guru’s mortal remains from Tihar jail.
Aijaz said that his brother’s execution involved many procedural lapses.
“He was hanged while the death sentence of many other convicts was commuted to the life sentence by the Supreme Court. Not only this, but the Kashmir’s pro-India parties should introspect about Tamil Nadu and Punjab government’s functioning as to how they could save their citizens from gallows,” he added.
Afzal Guru’s family had received the letter informing them about the execution two days after the hanging in Tihar Jail on the morning of February 9, 2013.
Shinde’s while talking a Delhi based news channel on Wednesday had said that “As far as Afzal Guru’s case is concerned, I had already instructed and given the file four days before. And that was the job of the Secretaries (to inform his family). But something went wrong somewhere and they didn’t inform a day before but informed in the night that the following day was his execution. In such cases I am of the view that the family must be informed properly as per jail rules.”

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