Afzal Guru's execution is akin to murdering the law and the Constitution of India, Chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) Yasin Malik said on Saturday. Malik, who was accompanied by some local members of the JKLF, is on a hunger strike here outside the National Press Club against Afzal Guru's execution, reacted by saying that the Indian government had committed a "blunder" by hanging Afzal Guru, who was studying medicine, adding that New Delhi would have to repent over the decision.
"The Indian Supreme Court's decision has exposed the real face of India and its democracy," Malik told journalists at the hunger strike camp. He said that the hunger strike would continue till Sunday evening. Malik, who abandoned the armed struggle and initiated a peaceful movement promoting the Kashmir cause, said that the Indian government, by bowing to the pressure of the Rashtriya Swayamasevak Sangh (RSS), had again created a situation where the Kashmiri youth might feel that violence "is the only way out". He also urged the Indian government to hand over the dead body of Afzal Guru to his family.
Questioning the timing of the hanging, Malik urged the Indian civil society to intervene to secure the release of Guru's body to his bereaved family. He also regretted that Guru's family members had not been allowed to meet him before the execution. When he was asked if he favoured executing Sarabjit Singh, currently in Pakistan's custody, the Kashmiri leader said that he did not support capital punishment and was also against a reciprocal execution.
He reminded that another Kashmiri leader, Maqbool Bhat, had been executed in 1984 and Indian leaders had at that time thought that it would somehow end the liberation movement. However, he said, Bhat's execution had yielded exactly the opposite results, adding that the liberation movement had gained momentum after the execution. "Likewise, the movement will not be suppressed through such cheap tactics. Now every Kashmiri will become 'Afzal Guru,'" he maintained.
He said that the struggle of the Kashmiri people was gaining greater public support with each passing day, adding that the day was not far when the movement would achieve its ultimate objective. Yasin Malik also questioned the sincerity of the ongoing dialogue process between Pakistan and India and other confidence-building measures, saying that despite the CBMs, at least 31 Hurriyat leaders were languishing in Indian jails, serving life terms.
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