Jammu, March 19 (IANS) Jammu and Kashmir assembly speaker Mubarak Gul has rejected a resolution, seeking return of the mortal remains of parliament attack convict Afzal Guru to his family, a legislator said Tuesday.
The resolution was moved by independent member Abdul Rashid Engineer, seeking the return of the body of Guru to his familiy. Guru was hanged in Delhi’s Tihar jail Feb 9 and buried in the jail premises.
Afzal Guru was sentenced to death by Delhi High Court in 2004 and the Supreme Court had upheld the sentence. He was executed after President Pranab Mukherjee rejected his mercy petition.
Engineer Rashid told IANS that he was informed about the rejection of the resolution through a letter by Speaker Mubarak Gul.
“The letter read that he is disallowing my resolution. This was quite late in the night,” said Rashid Engineer.
“No specific reasons were cited. It stated that is being disallowed under section 179 of the rules of conduct of the assembly,” he said.
“This is unfortunate that the state government is behaving like puppet of New Delhi. Heavens would not have fallen had this resolution been put through to a democratic process of choosing the resolution through ballot system March 30,” he said.
In case of a large number of resolutions, the state legislative assembly has a provision of picking up resolution through ballot system.
It may be recalled that the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party had announced the boycott of the ongoing budget session because its plea to discuss Afzal Guru and return of his mortal remains to the family was not entertained.
Engineer Rashid said that he would again raise the issue in the assembly Tuesday and would face any consequences for that.
Ever since Afzal Guru was hanged and buried in Tihar jail, Jammu and Kashmir’s leaders, especially from the valley have been pleading for the return of the body of Afzal Guru to his family.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and patron of PDP Mufti Mohammad Sayeed had written letters to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh urging him to intervene and get the mortal remains returned to Guru’s family.
Engineer Rashid alleged that the ministry of home affairs in New Delhi was directing all the moves on the issue and it was because of it, his resolution has been disallowed.
