The Home Ministry sat over Afzal Guru's mercy petition and did not send its recommendation to President A P J Abdul Kalam till his last day in office, it has been disclosed. Putting a lid on speculative reports that Kalam had deliberately kept the petition pending, P M Nair, who was Secretary to the President, said till July 25, 2007, Kalam's last day in office, no recommendation had come from the Home Ministry on the issue.
Jethmalani said he did not know if Afzal was one of the attackers and that he was only accompanying those who attacked Parliament.
The Bharatiya Janata Party is set to take up the issues like clemency to the mastermind of the attack on the Parliament, Mohammed Afzal Guru.
Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah, who is opposed to the execution of Mohammed Afzal, has said the death punishment for the Parliament terror attack convict is "too extreme".
Modi said he will serve the country till his last breath.
Afzal case: Mir detained, Fatah under house arrest
The chief patron of opposition National Conference told reporters here that as per media reports, Afzal appeared to be\ninnocent and he had not been given a chance to defend himself.
the breakaway HC has given a general strike call on Friday in protest against the court's order.
Kanhaiya has approached the high court as his six-months interim bail is scheduled to expire on September 1.
"Any judgment as per the law of the country will be processed and carried out. Law is the final authority," Kalam firmly told media persons on Saturday night while returning from Athens.
They have even threatened to return their medals of honour.
The move comes on December 13, the fifth anniversary of the attack.
She was speaking at the launch of a book on the Parliament attack.
Guru said he was moved by the 'solidarity' he has received from the people cutting across ideological divides apart from the support he got from Jammu and Kashmir.
The police are questioning four persons, including the owner of the cyber cafe from where the e-mail was sent to various senior officials of the state.
According to legal provisions, a convict facing capital punishment cannot be hanged till the pendency of his or her clemency petition.
According to legal provisions, a convict facing death sentence cannot be hanged till his or her clemency plea is rejected.
The Supreme Court said the President and governors have to keep in mind the effect of such pardon on the family of the victim.
The petitions will also be sent to different international human rights organisations like Amnesty International.
Afzal's wife Tabassum, who submitted a clemency petition for her husband on Tuesday, had also requested for a personal hearing by the President.
The Left has never been comfortable with Kalam and had even put up the late Captain Lakshmi Sehgal when the NDA sought to make him a consensus candidate in 2002 and the Congress had no option left but to support him.
Noting that the President's actions did not reflect his esteemed position, Thackeray said Kalam was a leading scientist of the country but had lost the dignity of the post after he became President.
Hundreds of ABVP supporters on Wednesday marched from Ramlila Maidan to Jantar Mantar to denounce "anti-nationals".
Amid continuing uproar on the issue of freedom of expression in the country, Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni on Sunday called for respect to the armed forces, saying that the nation is in a position to debate because of the men in uniform. "As v have this debate on freedom of speech our forces r making sure v stay in position to keep debating," Dhoni wrote on his official Twitter handle. "Spl forces and commando unit's r normal ppl like u and me who r highly motivated and trained to put the interest of the nation before self," he added. Dhoni holds the honorary rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Indian Territorial Army.
Afzal's wife Tabassum told reporters that the President had assured her that he will go through the petition seeking clemency for Afzal.
Kashmir Valley was rocked by violent protests after a Delhi Court on September 26 sentenced Afzal to death in Tihar Jail in Delhi.
'The colloquial language forced a turn to the recent past and I thought about the hangings of men like Afzal Guru and Yakub Memon.' 'Whatever their deeds, proven or still in doubt, did their deaths not deserve to be mourned by a sister, wife, or child?' A fascinating excerpt from Amitava Kumar's Writing Badly Is Easy.
Denouncing the protest march in the Jawaharlal Nehru University against the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani on Friday said that the nation will never tolerate "insult" to mother India.
Under fire over his comments on 1984 anti-Sikh riots Jawaharlal Nehru University students union president Kanhaiya Kumar appeared to be in a damage control mode on Wednesday and said he will fight against every massacre.
Most of the shops, business establishments, petrol pumps and offices were shut in and around the Lal Chowk city centre and in many areas elsewhere in the city, while government offices witnessed thin attendance, officials said.
Former Delhi University lecturer SAR Gilani, arrested on sedition charges, was remanded to judicial custody till March 3 by the magistrate.
'The emphasis is on nationalism, which the party apparently feels will have greater resonance than one on religious identity which may have lost some of its appeal in recent years.'
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday said the anti-national protests in the JNU campus had the backing of LeT chief Hafiz Saeed.
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