Execution continues to haunt Congress

The execution of Afzal Guru two years back continued to trouble the Congress party after some leaders admitted that the then UPA government committed a mistake over how his family was informed about the decision.

“I think the hanging was both wrong and badly handled. Family should have been warned, given a last meeting and body returned,” Shashi Tharoor, a Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram, said on Twitter. His remarks on Twitter came days after five Congress MLAs termed Guru’s hanging a “mistake”. Reports said the five MLAs had issued the joint statement apparently to secure the support of independent MLA Rasheed Engineer for the Congress Rajya Sabha candidate Ghulam Nabi Azad.

Azad edged out BJP candidate Chander Mohan Sharma by securing the support of two independent MLAs Engineer and Hakeem Yasin in Saturday’s Rajya Sabha elections.
This is not for the first time that a Congress leader had spoken against the manner in which Guru was executed in the 2001 Parliament attack case. Jammu and Kashmir Congress chief Saifuddin Soz too had opposed the manner in which Guru was executed.

The execution of Guru on February 9, 2013 was carried out in utmost secrecy. The convict’s family members got to know of the hanging through media reports.

However, the Congress defended the UPA decision to hang Guru. “All the processes of law were followed. The order was executed on the basis of the Supreme Court verdict,” AICC spokesman Ajoy Kumar told reporters here.