SRINAGAR: Entire Kashmir valley has been placed under strict curfew in the wake of the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru in the wee hours of Saturday.
Incidentally, chief minister Omar Abdullah was in New Delhi on Friday and reports said that he was himself caught unawares about the rejection of the mercy plea of Afzal Guru by President Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday. Home minister Sushilkumar Shinde had promised that he would dispose of the file soon after took over the charge of home ministry last year.
Importantly, Supreme Court had ordered hanging of Guru in 2004, after he was charged of attack on the Parliament in 2001 but Guru's wife made an appeal to the President for mercy after his execution was scheduled in 2006 till then the mercy petition was pending with the President's office.
The reports from New Delhi said that President Pranab Mukherjee rejected the mercy plea on January 23, 2013 and hanging took place at 8am on Saturday, inside the Tihar jail where the convict was lodged, the sources added.
Nine people including security men and officials of the Parliament were killed when Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists attacked the Parliament in 2001 and Afzal Guru was held responsible for conspiracy and helping the perpetrators even several of the Kashmiris based in New Delhi were picked up for questioning but later on released after court observed that they were not involved in the crime.
The authorities in Srinagar and other major towns of the valley had announcements through loudspeakers to remain indoors after the Fajr Nimaz and heavy deployment of para-military and police was placed in the sensitive areas of miasuma locality in uptown besides areas in down town, the reports said.
The authorities have even closed the Srinagar-Jammu national highway for the day to avert the trouble. Large number of para-military personnel have deployed outside the houses of the separatist leaders to prevent them from coming out on the streets to instigate trouble in the valley, the reports said.
Reports said, Srinagar residents are informing one another on phone about the imposition of curfew in the valley and trying to know the situation in their respective areas.
Incidentally, the hanging of Guru came two days earlier on February 11 when JKLF activists were preparing to observe "Martyr's day" for the hanging of their founder leader Maqbool Bhat , who was hanged to death in Tihar jail on February 11 in 1983 after he was held guilty of killing bank manger in border district of Kupwara in bank robbery case.
The separatist leaders and the mainstream politicians were averse to hanging of Guru and the chief minister Omar Abdullah wanted that his hanging should be delayed for the time being during his rule in the state.
Afzal Guru, who hailed from Sopore in north Kashmir was a Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorist and was sentenced to death by the SC in 2002 after he was found guilty of 2001 Parliament attack.
While some sources say that Azal Guru's mercy appeal was rejected on Friday but some sources say that it was rejected by the President on January 23, 2013.
Initially, Afzal Guru was a part of JKLF terrorist outfit. Guru, according to his own interviews with various newspapers, had admitted that he rejoined militancy after one Tariq Ahmad of Anantnag motivated him to join jehad for liberation of Kashmir by launching attacks on various embassies and Indian institutions. Tariq, according to Guru's own version introduced him to one Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorist in Ghaziabad in Pakistan, who motivated him to launch an attack on the Parliament.
