GURU

Mohammad Afzal Guru, a Liberalist, a Separatist, a Rebel or ... Just a Terrorist. India is confused, some happy some sad but everyone unsure about their feelings after the hanging of Afzal Guru on the 9th of February, 2013.

Afzal Guru, born in 1969 in Sopore town of Jammu and Kashmir got India's attention when he was arrested for his involvement in a ghastly attack at the parliament of India in which seven security personnel were killed. A common man from the valleys of Kashmir pursuing medicine got waylaid and ended up in Delhi helping Pakistan based terrorists. But all he allegedly did was to help these terrorists wage a war against the Indian Government, hurting the sentiments of billions of Indians and installing fear among them about safety in their own country.

Afzal was given the death sentence by the Indian Judiciary way back in 2002 and his final appeal in the Supreme Court rejected in 2005, yet it took eight years for the government to hang him. Is this really done for the right reasons, I am not sure. Afzal, unlike Ajmal Kasab is a son of the land, he is not an intruder but a citizen of India who according to his constitutional rights deserved a fair trial in the courts of India but instead found himself tangled in populist politics. All the evidence against him was circumstantial and inconclusive, and yet the High Court justice held up his death penalty in order to satify the "collective conscience" of the people of India. Is justice based on conscience in this country or fact based. Questions and doubts galore over the manner in which the trial was conducted since Afzal was never able to find a lawyer good enough to defend him in court as no one was willing to stand for him fearing the anger among the public and his family had no money to get him a top criminal lawyer plus those lawyers appointed by the court incriminated him more than they defended him. In addition to that the way police handled a suspect of such enormity was questionable as he was made to confess before the media during an ongoing murder trial. In all these interviews Afzal was many times seen giving confessions which were later revealed to have been given under duress to his family. Although later he has been said to have given his confession in writing and to have said that he hasn’t given it under any threats, its quite doubtful if that was the case. Anyways, bygones are bygones and we cannot bring Afzal back anymore but we can face the government which made Afzal a political tool to win Hindu sympathy and votes and to seal the voices of the opposition party which have been demanding the execution since a long time now. The attack on the parliament was carried out by two militant organizations Lashkar-E-Toiba and Jaish-E-Mohammad, and it has nowhere been proved that Afzal was a member of either. He was only charged of aiding and abetting the crimes. So was Death Penalty justified for Afzal Guru?? Maybe Yes maybe No.

We live an era when Death Penalty is coming towards abolition. Most countries today are shunning the Death Penalty as that is something which goes against Human Rights. But still some monsters do deserve their share of punishment. The question is, was Afzal Guru one such monster or was he just a scapegoat for a political gimmick? Had he been granted clemency which many human rights group and former J&K Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, there would have been a huge uproar with protests all over the country. Now that he wasnt given clemency or mercy, there are protests all over J&K.

The hanging of Afzal has brought a negative political repercussion, especially in the politics of the Kashmir Valley, the place Afzal belongs to. Afzal’s hanging has triggered a fresh episode of protests and unrest in the Valley. From the initial protests and demonstrations, it is gaining far-reaching impact. The separatist groups have used this opportunity with renewed energy to make quick inroads in Kashmir’s politics. Besides, Afzal’s hanging has inflicted another blow of injustice and ill-treatment on the brutalized history of the Kashmiri people. It would only increase the trust-deficit and shake the faith of Kashmiri people in democracy and the judiciary of India.

It must be remembered that Afzal himself was part of a militant group fighting for liberation of Kashmir. He returned disillusioned and relinquished violence. But today, even after shunning violence, he has been made a victim of circumstantial justice.. By hanging Afzal, the last chance to undo the injustice by not having a fair trial has been lost. Death has made Afzal Guru an unwilling martyr and his story a parable of injustice in Kashmir, a story which today is being compared to those of some of the most respected freedom fighters of India, Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru.

What is embarrassing is the timing of this execution. After two decades of missed opportunities, half-beginnings, compromises, there was a chance to make Kashmir feel like a part of the mainland by treating Afzal's case fairly but what was done is a shame on our judicial system. I do not say that Afzal was innocent by any means .. NO. He indeed was involved in the Parliament attack. He was the one who received phone calls a couple of minutes before the attack by the attackers of Parliament. He was the one who identified them after the shootout was over. Then why was he denied a fair trial .. Was someone trying to save the masterminds?? He was just a small fish. Those who think that Afzal Guru was innocent are wrong. But equally wrong are those who project him as the master planner of the shootout at “Parliament House”. The truth is that he was involved but his role was not that of a mastermind. By making him the scapegoat what we did was end the investigation in the case and hence let the real culprits get away with nothing.

Afzal, for me should not have been hanged secretly without any information to the people of Kashmir as is normally supposed to be the case in the civilized human world. It should have an open case for all so that facts and figures about him could have been analyzed by one and all. The secret execution itself is a testimony that the Govt. of India had no moral courage to face the world by informing the family and Kashmiri people in advance. This because its already known how the investigation and the trial has gone. To think that a citizen of India, of Jammu and Kashmir is killed without informing his family and the entire state is put under curfew with the media and internet banned in the whole state is enough to figure out the highhandedness of the Government in India and puts a question about the democracy and secularism of India.