In support of Mohammad Afzal
We believe that there is no concrete evidence of Mohammad Afzal’s involvement in the 13th December, 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament for which he has been sentenced to death. The Supreme Court admits that his association with any terrorist organization cannot be proved. He is not a criminal. He became a political activist because of the prevailing situation in Kashmir. It is a fact that people of Kashmir are subjected to human rights abuses at the hands of Indian security forces on one hand and the militants on the other. People are aspiring for a freedom from daily violence. Mohammad Afzal represents the aspirations of people of Kashmir.
In order to ensure that no more terrorist incidents take place it is important to find a solution to the problem of Kashmir according to the wishes of people living here. We urge the President of India to ensure justice to Mohammad Afzal and to the Governments of India and Pakistan to arrive at a solution ensuring justice to the people of Kashmir.
16 April 2007
[ To endorse the above statement, send email to admin@justiceforafzalguru.org ]
Partial list of endorsors so far: Anand Patwardhan, Arundhati Roy, Noam Chomsky, Sister Helen Prejean, Harsh Mandar, S. A. R. Geelani, Sandeep Pandey, Justice Suresh, Gautam Navlakha, Ved Bhasin, Ziauddin Sardar Praful Bidwai, Ram Puniyani, Dionne Bunsha, Jyoti Punwani, Asgar Ali Engineer, Ammu Abraham.
Send in your endorsments today!
By Indira Jaising, Hindustan Times, 20 Jan., 2007
To send a man to his death without legal representation is not only unconstitutional but also barbaric | Click
A letter to NDTV by N. D. Pancholi, 26 Dec., 2006
"Your repeated news bulletins over two days
reduced the issue of the hanging of Afzal and his
Mercy Petition pending with the President to a
very simplistic solution "Show repeatedly the
video tape (an unlawful piece of evidence) of the
alleged confession of Afzal recorded in police
custody as breaking news, convince the viewers
that it has brought out the ultimate truth, ask
them to send SMS messages to NDTV conveying their opinions about the "—Phansi" (hanging) of Afzal,
and then pour out the "—collective opinion"
gathered in this manner to pave the way for the
prompt hanging of Afzal."What a simple, quick
solution of an issue involving the life and death
of a citizen!"| Click
Media bending the truth to push Afzal to the gallows
-- Bv Arundhati Roy, Hindustan Times, 23 December 2006. | Click
India's shame -- Bv Arundhati Roy, The Guardian, 15 December 2006. | Click
If the proceedings of the trial of Afzal guru and three others before the designated judge under POTA were to be videographed one would have understood the trivialization of rule of law in this country.
-- K. G. Kannabiran, President People's Union for Civil Liberties. | Click
A letter to Hindustan Times by Sandeep Vaidya, 25 Dec., 2006. | Click
Afzal Guru’s hanging will reinforce the perception of two sets of legal
norms prevalent in a society polarising fast on communal lines,
says Ram Puniyani By Ram Puniyani, Combat Law, Nov - Dec 2006 | Click
It will remind Kashmiris once again how communal and biased
Indians are when it comes to Kashmir.
By Inam ul Rehman, Kashmir Affairs | Click
Kashmir sees another son being hanged
When a Delhi court awarded death sentence to the Kashmiri
Muhammad Afzal Guru, what first came to minds of the
agonized Kashmiris was a previous hanging in Delhi’s Tihar jail.
That hanging changed not only the course of Kashmir history,
but also resulted in a drastic change in the political thinking of
Kashmiris says Pervez Majeed.
The Very Strange Story of the Attack on the Indian Parliament
-- By Arundhati Roy, Outlook, 30 October 2006
"To invoke the 'collective conscience of society' to validate ritual murder,
which is what the death penalty is, skates precariously close to valorising
lynch law.It's chilling to think that this has been laid upon us not by
predatory politicians or sensation-seeking journalists (though they too have
done that), but as an edict from the highest court in the land."
The case of a Kashmiri Muslim convicted for terrorism raises
serious
questions about the operation of Indian democracy,
says Shubh Mathur Link
. Unfortunately no one from both the sides, for as well as against
the execution, is looking at the real background of the whole episode.
It is a pity that even those who have been continuously protesting
against this execution and claim to stand for the rights of Kashmiris
have not been able to project their case in the right perspective,
says M. Ashraf. Article | Greater Kashmir Online
"I don't know how many of you are aware of the Intelligence Bureau or
Home Ministry again making attempts to use media as a tool."
By Anuradha Bhasin Jamwal, Executive Editor of Kashmir Times. Click
The Supreme Court acknowledges that Mohammed
Afzal Guru is not a
terrorist and that they have no direct evidence against him. Is he on
death row on the
basis of a shoddy probe? Mihir Srivastava looks at
critical questions still unanswered. Link
The Economic and Political Weekly, September 17, 2005
Three judicial pronouncements have been made on the Parliament attack case
including the latest Supreme Court judgment. But certain questions are still
unanswered: Who attacked Parliament and what was the conspiracy? On what
basis did the NDA government take the country close to a nuclear war? What were
the roles of the state task force of Jammu and Kashmir and special cell of Delhi police
investigating the cases? Given the momentous nature of these questions, for the
future of Indian democracy nothing less than a Parliamentary enquiry is necessary
to provide the answers.
