Srinagar, Aug 31 (IANS) ‘If J and K assembly had passed a resolution similar to the Tamil Nadu one for Afzal Guru, would the reaction have been as muted? I think not,’ Chief Minister Omar Abdullah asked Wednesday.
Reacting to the Tamil Nadu assembly resolution’s on former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi’s killers, Abdullah moaned that the sentiments of the people in Kashmir were unfairly treated outside the state.
In the Kashmir Valley, the death sentence awarded to Guru for the 2001 Indian parliament attack has been a sensitive one.
The state government apprehends widespread unrest if he is hanged.
The home ministry has sent the file on Guru’s mercy petition to President Pratibha Patil.
Abdullah does not favour death penalty for any convict, and he would not like someone whose hanging could derail peace in the state to be executed.
The Sep 9 hanging of the three men sentenced to death for conspiring to assassinate Gandhi was stayed for eight weeks by the Madras High Court Tuesday.
The Tamil Nadu assembly also passed a resolution asking the president to review their mercy petitions.
