India Parliament attacker hanged

Afzal Guru, a terrorist who had played a major role in facilitating the 2001 terror attack on the Indian Parliament, was hanged this morning inside a prison in New Delhi, confirmed the country's Home Secretary R.K. Singh. Afzal was hanged at 8.00 a.m. (Indian Standard Time), Saturday. The country's President Pranab Mukherjee had rejected his mercy petition on February 3, added R.K. Singh. The hanging of Afzal Guru is the second capital punishment to someone proved guilty of being involved in terrorist activities in India, after Ajmal Kasab, a Pakistani terrorist involved in 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, who was hanged on November 21. As many as 12 people, including one media-person and security persons, were killed and many injured in the Parliament terror attack carried out on December 13, 2001, when Parliament was in session and all senior leaders, ministers and members of parliament (MPs) were present inside its premises. The terror attack was blamed on banned terrorist organisations Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM). Guru was found guilty for the first time in 2002 by a Delhi trial court for the role he had played in the terrorist attack. Thereafter, his sentence was upheld by the Delhi High Court. Finally, the country's apex court - Supreme Court of India had put its stamp on his death sentence in 2006. Following his death sentence being confirmed by the Supreme Court, Afzal Guru had moved a mercy petition before the President of India. His mercy petition had been lying pending at President of India's office for past seven years. The government of the country's northern most state of Jammu and Kashmir had urged the Centre to commute Afzal Guru's death sentence into life imprisonment, anticipatiing law and order problem in the state following Guru's hanging. Briefing media persons in New Delhi, R.K. Singh said, "Afzal was woken up at 5.00 a.m. (IST) and hanged till death at 8.00 p.m. Sensing law and order problems, strict security measures have been undertaken in country's northern most state of Jammu and Kashmir. State Chief Minister Omar Abdullah was kept informed about the move." The main Opposition party - the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has welcomed the Government's move. "Though the move to hang Afzal Guru was delayed much, but it is a welcome move by the Government. This hanging was much awaited by the countrymen all these years," said BJP spokesman Rajiv Pratap Rudy.