diwana
February 10, 2013, 2:05am
31
Re: Afzal Guru hanged in Delhi’s Tihar jail
i don’t think the death penalty should have been awarded in this case but the fact is that india uses the death penalty extremely rarely…once in a blue moon. as long as china executes 5,000 people per year and saudi arabia beheads teenage maids, india will never enter the radar of the international community with a one-off execution like this. i’m not sure if the death penalty itself is what you are upset about or just the unannounced execution/prison burial but i think both are wrong in a civilized progressive nation.
this is not true. even those protesting now do not consider him an “innocent” man. the debate is not about whether he was involved in the parliament attack…the question is about the nature of his involvement and therefore the appropriateness of a death sentence. was he just a small-time facilitator? logistics man? mastermind?
the argument being made is that there was not enough evidence to convict him of any crime that deserves the death penalty. i happen to agree with this. however** it has been difficult for him to portray the trial as unfair given that SAR geelani and afsan guru were acquitted and released after the supreme court ruled that there was not enough evidence for conviction.**
“In its August 4, 2005, judgement the Supreme Court clearly says that there was no evidence that Mohammed Afzal belonged to any terrorist group or organisation.”
‘And His Life Should Become Extinct’ | Arundhati Roy](http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?232979 )
Acquitting SAR and Afshan does not mean he was not an innocent man.