Several hundred Muslims took to the streets in occupied Kashmir on Friday to call for the lifting of a death sentence imposed on a man convicted of conspiracy in a deadly 2001 raid on India's parliament. Occupation police fired teargas to disperse demonstrators.
The Indian Supreme Court upheld on Thursday a 2003 high court verdict sentencing Mohammed Afzal to death for conspiring to stage the raid, in which five gunmen stormed the parliamentary complex before being slain by security forces.
Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) head Yasin Malik led the march. He said the execution could cast a cloud over peace talks between India and Pakistan.
"As we're talking peace, there should be no room for hangings," Yasin Malik said, appealing to Indian President Abdul Kalam to commute the sentence. Marchers cried: "Release Azfal. He is innocent." Meanwhile, occupation police said on Friday they had arrested six men suspected of being freedom fighters involved in three car bomb blasts that killed 16 people and injured 75.
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