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J&K CM seeks clemency for Md Afzal
Azad says the public sentiment in the Valley is against the decision to hang the Parliament attack plotter. Your take
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has appealed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for sympathetic consideration of Mohammad Afzal's mercy petition.
Seeking Presidential clemency for the Parliament attack plotter, Azad cited the public sentiment in the Valley against the verdict, reports said.
The two leaders met on the sidelines of the chief ministers' conclave in Chandigarh.
Political parties in Kashmir have called for a bandh on Friday to protest the Supreme Court verdict.
Afzal has been convicted in the 2001 Parliament attack case and is to be hanged on October 20.
Meanwhile, thirty separatists were detained and Hurriyat hawk Syed Ali Shah Geelani was placed under house arrest as protests over upcoming execution of Mohammad Afzal in a Parliament attack case rocked Kashmir valley for the third straight day today.
Chairman of the Hurriyat Conference hardline faction, who was scheduled to visit Afzal's Sopore residence, was placed under house arrest as a precautionary measure.
Thirty more separatists, mostly owing allegiance to the hardline faction, were also taken into preventive custody, the sources said.
The Human Rights Forum (HRF), an NGO working for protection of civil rights, said it would appeal to President A P J Abdul Kalam to commute the death sentence of Afzal.
