Guru justified Parliament attack

Parliament attack convict Mohammad Afzal Guru had in a letter purportedly written by him over four years ago said there was no need to be ashamed of the December 13 attack on Parliament, but had stopped short of owning any responsibility for it.

In the letter written to the editor of a local Urdu weekly, Guru, who was hanged in Delhi’s Tihar jail on February 9, asked Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin not to be “ashamed of December 13” and stop terming the attack as a “conspiracy.”

Editor of the Urdu weekly Shabnum Qayoom said that he has been receiving Guru’s letters and articles and is sure that this letter was written by him.

“I used to receive his (Guru’s) letters and articles, so this was nothing new. The handwriting is the same as the previous letters and articles. I do not care if people believe it to be authentic or not,” he said.

Asked why he did not publish the letter for four years, he said he did not deem it appropriate.

“I believe he was swept by emotions. He was not involved but he thought that as there was no way to escape, why not accept and achieve martyrdom. I did not think it was appropriate to publish the letter that time as it would might been taken as an evidence against him, but now that he is no more, I went ahead with it,” he said.

Guru had said in the letter: “I request Salahuddin to not call the attack of December 13 as a conspiracy. It pains my heart. The attacks are related to Kashmir issue. If the attack was a conspiracy, then the whole struggle is a conspiracy.We should not be ashamed of December 13.”