J&K Hindu groups against clemency to Afzal

Hindu groups have held demonstrations in J&K and urged President not to grant clemency to Mohammed Afzal.

Hindu organisations in Jammu and Kashmir are against granting clemency to Mohammed Afzal, who faces execution for masterminding the terror attack on parliament in December 2001.

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Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad is reported to have sought Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's intervention for presidential pardon for Afzal.

People's Democratic Party President Mehbooba Mufti has also demanded a review of the order to hang him on October 20.

Shiv Sena and Bajrang Dal have held demonstrations in Jammu while the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) has urged President APJ Abdul Kalam not to get swayed by protests against the death warrant for the terrorist.

"We have pinned all our hopes on you," said a resolution addressed to the president and passed by the VHP at its executive meeting on Saturday.

State VHP Unit President Rama Kant Dubey said that, in considering the death sentence for Afzal, national interest should be taken into consideration "rather than the lung power unleashed by separatists and their sympathisers in the streets of Kashmir."

Dubey was referring to a complete shutdown in the Kashmir valley on Thursday and protests by sympathisers pleading for mercy to Afzal.

While the Supreme Court had August 4, 2005 upheld a Delhi High Court judgement confirming the death sentence awarded to Afzal by a trial court, a Delhi lower court judge on Tuesday signed the death warrant directing the Tihar Jail authorities to make arrangements to hang him on October 20.

The apex court had said there was clinching evidence against Afzal regarding his nexus with the five terrorists who had attacked the Indian parliament on December 13, 2001.

The terrorist belongs to Tarzu village near Sopore in north Kashmir.

ShivShiv Sena leader Anan Sharma said: "Terrorists deserve no mercy", adding that those seeking reduction in the sentence were anti-national.