Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley shares his thoughts on the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru
Chiefs of both factions of Hurriyat Conference -- Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umer Farooq -- were on Saturday placed under house arrest in the national capital as a preventive measure following the hanging of Afzal Guru in the Parliament attack case.
Congress on Saturday said the message of 'zero tolerance' against terrorism has been sent through the execution of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, close on the heels of Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab's hanging. Party spokesman Rashid Alvi said, "After Independence, two major acts of terror have taken place in the country -- the attack on Parliament and the Mumbai terror strikes -- and those who were responsible for both have been hanged."
'It shows the signs of a weak government to avoid the heat from Afzal Guru that they carried out Ajmal Kasab's hanging in secrecy,' says IPS officer-turned-activist Y P Singh.
Afzal had sought review of the judgment saying that he did not a get fair trial.
With the Supreme Court on Friday dismissing death row convict Devinderpal Singh Bhullar's plea that he should not be sent to the gallows, the Congress and the United Progressive Alliance government are hoping the verdict will stem the raging debate over the hanging of 2001 Parliament House attack accused Afzal Guru.
We have demanded that Kanhaiya be released and the home minister has assured us that no action will be taken against any innocent student," the CPI-M leader added.
All Parties Hurriyat Conference Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has accused the Jammu and Kashmir government of outsourcing the handling of the state to security agencies and is treating it as law and order situation than a political one.
From rejecting the mercy petition of Afzal Guru to allegedly disapproving of the suggestion to send former West Bengal governor Gopal Gandhi as India's next ambassador to Myanmar, President Pranab Mukherjee continues to assert himself as a notable player in Delhi's political parlour.
Against the backdrop of J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah voicing anger over the hanging of Afzal Guru, Union Minister Manish Tewari on Monday said that there was need for being "circumspect and responsible" as delicate scrutiny was involved in such cases.
As many as 14 companies of the Border Security fOrce were rushed to Kashmir Valley to tackle law and order trouble, if any, even as the region remained under curfew for the third day following the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru. Fourteen companies of Border Security Force have been rushed to Srinagar for law and order duty and to ensure peace and tranquility, said security officials.
In a significant move, the Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Centre to furnish details of 18 mercy pleas, including that of Parliament attack death convict Afzal Guru, pending disposal before the President.
As secrecy shrouded the hanging of Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab, inmates and authorities of Buxar prison believe that the rope used for the purpose was manufactured by the jail.
The court told the police to ask the authorities concerned to expedite the sanctions.
As the lone surviving perpetrator of the Mumbai terror attacks Ajmal Kasab filed a mercy petition before the President against his death sentence, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday sought to know if the government would delay his execution for "vote-bank politics" or deal with it on a priority basis.
JNU vice chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar, whose tenure was marred by controversies, has been appointed as chairman of the University Grants Commission.
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray on Tuesday supported cartoonist Aseem Trivedi and demanded that he be set free and the sedition charge against him be dropped.
Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front chairman Mohammad Yasin Malik on Monday accused the Delhi police of making a murderous assault on him in the national capital where he had proposed to hold a hunger strike to press for the return of Afzal Guru's mortal remains.
Kashmir's famous tulip garden on the shores of the world famous Dal Lake is yet again in bloom with the advent of spring
Asserting that statement of the Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde is "insult" to the House and people of Jammu and Kashmir, Opposition PDP announced a boycott of the remaining budget session of the state Assembly.
Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front chief Yasin Malik, who created flutters in India by sharing dais with 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed in Pakistan, on Friday said he is prepared for confiscation of his passport or his arrest on returning home next week.
'Eight policemen were sitting in my drawing room, feeling at home. They had locked up my 13-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son in a room that did not have a toilet.' Onkar Singh reports on Iftikhar Gilani's plight after Afzal Guru's execution.
After the Congress suggested that the BJP chief should be referred to a "psychiatric facility" for his remarks on Afzal Guru's hanging, Nitin Gadkari retaliated saying he understood their compulsions and hence was "forgiving" them from the core of his heart.
The policemen who were deployed in and around Tihar Jail, where Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru was hanged on Saturday morning, had no idea why they were on duty there. "We were given orders to secure Tihar," said one of the policeman manning the entry point of jail no 3. He added that they were not told why they were being asked to secure the prison premises.
Son of Matbar Singh Negi, who was duty on December 13 on the fateful day as part of the Parliament watch and ward staff, Gautam Negi said the hanging of Afzal Guru in Tihar jail was a good decision by the government and it will send a strong message to terrorist groups
Initiating the discussion on demands for grants of Home Ministry, BJP member Anurag Thakur demanded a White Paper on government's initiative to deal with naxalism, which has become a big threat to the nation.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday questioned the secular credentials of the Congress and accused it of appeasing terrorists and engaging in a loot of the nation through 'scores of scandals'.
While the Supreme Court on Wednesday confirmed the death sentence awarded to 26/11 gunman Ajmal Kasab, the fact is that the legal process has not come to an end just as yet.
Whether it is clemency for Rajiv Gandhi killers or Afzal guru or Bhullar; the motive behind this 'clemency' is same -- vote bank politics. The punishment whether life term, death sentence etc needs to be carried out, says Varad Varenya.
The Delhi battlefield may not be a cakewalk for the Rhodes Scholar.
A torrent of issues ranging from price rise to demand for dismissal of Mayawati government and immediate execution of Ajmal Kasab and Afzal Guru drowned the second day of the Monsoon session of Parliament on Tuesday.
Several hours before a protest march, the Jawaharlal Nehru University authorities appealed to its student fraternity to 'reconsider' on account of their safety.
Charging the Centre with appeasing minorities for electoral gains, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad on Saturday called for a nationwide agitation to highlight the 'oppression of Hindus'."On one hand, the government is not executing death sentence to Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru and on the other it is torturing an innocent person like Sadhvi Pragya Singh, who has been falsely implicated in the Malegaon blast case," VHP leader Venkatesh Abdev said.
Restrictions continued in parts of Srinagar city for second day on Tuesday following the death of a youth in security forces firing.
'I can easily say that BJP should not have joined hands with PDP in Jammu and Kashmir. If you are totally against terrorism, then you have to be sincere in that'
The Harkat-ul-Jihadi email has given a new twist to the Delhi high court blast. It is now being claimed that this outfit which operates out of Bangladesh had carried out these blasts in order to protest the hanging of Afzal Guru. Vicky Nanjappa reports.
With BJP president Nitin Gadkari refusing to take back his Afzal Guru 'son-in-law of Congress' remark, Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has said some decency was expected in comments by political leaders.
'Afzal Guru was convicted of supporting the attack on India's Parliament. The Supreme Court said "the collective conscience of society will only be satisfied if capital punishment is awarded" to Guru.' 'Till we can think up similar justifications for hanging non-Muslims, I do not think we can delink terrorism from religion in our minds,' argues Aakar Patel.
Coming out in support of SAR Gilani, a Delhi university teachers body has demanded that the professor be released and said the "colonial" sedition law under which he has been charged was being "misused to supress dissent" and should be scrapped.
M Venkaiah Naidu launched a scathing attack on the Congress for calling statements of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi anti-national and saying he should be tried for treason. "What else can you expect from the Congress government but to launch treason proceedings against Modi and confer the Bharat Ratna on Mohammad Afzal Guru who was awarded death sentence for attacking Parliament in December 2001," he told rediff.com.
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