BJP pitches for quick hanging of Afzal Guru

NEW DELHI: As the home ministry continues to insist on reviewing mercy petitions of those who are on death row one-by-one before sending it to President Pratibha Patil for her final view, Opposition BJP on Monday pitched for quick hanging of Afzal Guru, who has been convicted for the 2001 Parliament attack case.

“The government should act on giving punishment to the convicts so that not only the family members of the attack victims, but also the entire country can get relief... Only paying tributes without giving punishment to the convicts seem an observance of a ceremony,” BJP leader Sushma Swaraj said on the occasion of the ninth anniversary of Parliament attack.

Reacting to BJP leader’s remark, home minister P Chidambaram said he did not want to join issue with opposition as Monday was a solemn occasion — nine people had lost their lives when terrorists attacked Parliament nine years ago. “I don’t want to enter into a verbal quarrel with BJP. Either they are dense or pretend to be deaf,” he said.

Sources, in home ministry, said, government may take some more time to send the mercy petition of Afzal to the President as she is yet to clear 15 mercy pleas. They added that though the ministry would not recommend commuting death sentence of Afzal, it would take its own time as it has to first clear files of five other cases, which were there in the list before Afzal’s petition reached the ministry.

“As the previous 15 files of mercy petitions have not been cleared, we are holding back the remaining ones. Whenever she clears the old files, we will send the equal number of cases for her consideration ,” a source said.