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A day after the Peoples Democratic Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party coalition government assumed power in Jammu and Kashmir, a group of lawmakers from the Kashmiri party demanded that the mortal remains of Parliament attack convict be handed over to the family.
The demanded is expected to stir another controversy for the alliance, which is already under fire over Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed's remarks on Sunday thanking Pakistan and terrorists for "allowing conducive atmosphere" for assembly polls.
In a statement issued on Monday, a group of PDP MLAs said, “The PDP has always maintained that the late Afzal Guru’s hanging was a travesty of justice and constitutional requirements/process was not followed in hanging him out of turn. The way he was picked up… and singled out has been condemned by the PDP and it stands by the demand for return of his mortal remains.”
The statement further added, “We believe that the resolution brought by Engineer Rashid to seek clemency for late Afzal Guru was justified and should have been adopted by the House at that time.”
Rashid, an independent legislator had submitted a resolution to the assembly Speaker on September 17, 2011 seeking clemency for Afzal Guru. The resolution seeking clemency was, however, stalled in the Jammu and Kashmir assembly after pandemonium broke out leading to adjournment of the House.
Rashid, who was present during the release of the statement, said, "I just wanted to prove the PDP wrong the way they treated the Afzal Guru issue... If BJP has any respect for moral values then the BJP should break the alliance because they were calling Afzal Guru the terrorist and I have proved that Afzal was a hero", according to a report on NDTV.
The United Progressive Alliance, during its tenure, paid no heeds to demands about the return of Guru's remains, which have been reportedly interred inside Delhi's Tihar Jail after his execution in 2013.
Image: Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru
With inputs from agencies