Srinagar: Former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Omar Abdullah on Sunday said that the UPA government hanged Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru for political reasons.
Omar said that he received a call from the then Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde informing him that he had signed the papers for Guru to be hanged early next morning and asking him to make law and order arrangements.
“I asked the Home Minister whether he was sure that nothing can be done. He said no as he had signed the paper and warrant has been issued and asked me to deal with the implications,” he said.
“I had said I will not pass judgement on it until I see how Government handles other cases… I have seen other cases. Look how they handled assassins of Beant Singh and Rajiv Gandhi and look how they jumped this guy up the queue. Clearly what other conclusion can you arrive at other than this that they wanted to deny BJP another handle to beat them with in the general elections and, therefore, the easiest two people to be hanged were Ajmal Kasab because he was a foreign national and Afzal Guru. Whether I like it or not but they did it,” he said.
“The Afzal Guru execution was something that was discussed all through my tenure. Because we knew it was like a sword of Damocles hanging over us. So from time to time the implications of it were conveyed to the Government of India both to Mr P Chidambaram and to Mr Shinde,” he said.
Afzal Guru was hanged on February 9, 2013 by UPA government without informing his family.