JOIN USBJP today welcomed the execution of Parliament attack convict Mohammed Afzal Guru, saying it was a "much awaited and much wanted decision".
"This action is delayed. But undoubtedly it is a welcome action. ...it was a much awaited decision, much wanted decision so that the world could see that India is committed against terror, the fight against terror," BJP spokesman Rajiv Pratap Rudy told reporters here.
He said the BJP has always been pressing for strong and prompt action against perpetrators of terror.
"Any action against terror like the hanging of Afzal Guru should be immediate. It cannot be delayed. If the highest court of the land upheld the conviction of Afzal Guru in 2007, thereafter there was no reason that any mercy petition should have been delayed for so long," he said.
"Though delayed, we still feel that the hanging of Afzal Guru was a right action. It has been done and the people of this country have been wanting and waiting for it for a long time," he said.
Days after his mercy petition was rejected by the President, Guru was hanged at 8 AM at Tihar jail here.
Guru was convicted of conspiracy in the December 2001 attack on Parliament and was sentenced to death by the Supreme Court in 2004.
On December 13, 2001, five heavily-armed gunmen stormed the Parliament complex and opened indiscriminate fire, killing nine persons.