Why Afzal Must Not Be Hanged By Nandita Haksar "..The Supreme Court of India acquitted Mohammad Afzal of the charges of belonging to any terrorist organisation. There was not even an iota of evidence produced by the prosecution to link Afzal with any banned organisation. Secondly, Afzal was not directly involved in the killing of anyone. Thirdly, the Supreme Court rejected his confession because it was found to be extracted by torture...
...Despite this the Supreme Court sentenced Afzal Guru to death. Why? The Supreme Court held: "The incident, which resulted in heavy casualties, had shaken the entire nation and the collective conscience of the society will only be satisfied if the capital punishment is awarded to the offender... ...In a resolution passed in Srinagar on September 24, 2005 the leaders of the movement for Kashmir's self-determination asked the following question: "We the people of Kashmir ask: why the collective conscience of Indians is not shaken by the fact that a Kashmiri has been sentenced to death without a fair trial, without a chance to represent himself? Throughout the trial at the Sessions Court Mohammad Afzal asked the Judge to appoint a lawyer. He even named various lawyers but they all refused to represent him. Is it his fault that the Indian lawyers think it is more patriotic to allow a Kashmiri to die rather than ensure he gets a fair trial?.. This resolution was signed by Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Shabir Ahmad Shah, Mohammad Yaseen Malik, Mian Abdul Qayyoom and Nisar Mir. ...Now once again Afzal is being hanged by the media..." http://www.countercurrents.org/haskar270510.htm If Azal is hanged today will it resolve any problem? Will it satisfy the conscience of this country? Will all those gunning for him feel any safer? The answer to all these questions is 'no'. Hanging Afzal under the pressure of the Hindu Right-wing lobby would only endanger Indian security and would be a stigma on Indian democracy -- You cannot build anything on the foundations of caste. You cannot build up a nation, you cannot build up a morality. Anything that you will build on the foundations of caste will crack and will never be a whole. -AMBEDKAR http://venukm.blogspot.com http://www.shelfari.com/kmvenuannur http://kmvenuannur.livejournal.com -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "humanrights movement" group. To post to this group, send email to humanrights-movem...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to humanrights-movement+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/humanrights-movement?hl=en.
