by
Girish Nikam
�
The raging debate on whether Mohd.Afzal alias Afzal Guru, found guilty by the Supreme Court of masterminding the attack on Indian Parliament in 2001, should be sent to the gallows or his sentence be commuted to life imprisonment has understandably taken an emotional turn.

The letters column in the newspapers and blog sites on Internet, are replete with demands of vendetta against the bearded Kashmiri, for his treachery against the nation. Political parties are divided on predictable lines. The BJP is opposed to any mercy for the Kashmiri, in tune with its tough nationalistic posture, while the CPI (M) has openly professed it, again in tune with its liberal pro-Human rights approach, with the Congress central leadership undecided where it stands, even as its Chief Minister in Jammu and Kashmir petitioned the Prime Minister to grant mercy.

The politics of Kashmir has obviously forced the stand adopted by Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, as the entire valley seems to have come to life in support of a Presidential pardon on the death sentence to Afzal.

�

Dire warnings are being touted by the separatists in the valley, of the situation going completely out of hand if the death sentence is carried out. “Don’t fall for this blackmail” scream the pro-death.
Last time a Kashmiri militant was hanged was in 1984. Maqbool Butt, an M.A(Urdu) and LL.B degree holder from Kupwara, who even had a brief stint as a journalist, and went on to become the Secretary of Jammu and Kashmir Plebiscite front in 1965 as a 26 year old. He had migrated to Peshawar in Pakistan in 1958 as a 19 year old. In 1966 he infiltrated into the Kashmir valley and his first act of terrorism was to kill a CID official, Amar Chand. He was sentenced to death for it. In 1968 he escaped from Srinagar and went back to Pakistan.

Interestingly, the Pakistan police suspecting him to be an Indian agent arrested him. Later both the Indian and Pakistani authorities suspected him of being a double agent. In 1975 after the Kashmir accord, he again infiltrated into Kashmir and indulged in various “terrorist” acts, including bank robbery, killing of the Manager of the Bank, for which he was arrested and sentenced to death by the Srinagar District and Sessions Judge, N.K.Ganju.

While he was awaiting death, on Feb.4, 1984 Kashmir Liberation Front of which Butt was an important leader kidnapped Ravindra Mhatre, an Indian High commission official in London. The kidnappers, which included KLF leader, Amanullah Khan, sought Butt’s release if Mhatre had to be spared. Then Prime Minister Mrs.Indira Gandhi refused, and Mhatre was killed. In that atmosphere of vendetta and outrage, Butt was executed on Feb.11. The whole kidnap plot hatched by Amanullah Khan, according to former Jammu and Kashmir Governor, Jagmohan, was aimed at eliminating Butt, who had emerged as a threat within the KLF.

Butt’s hanging provided the separatists in Kashmir with a strong leitmotif for their movement, and Butt soon emerged as the Martyr for the cause. Feb.11 all through the eighties and nineties and till now, is observed as a martyr’s day in the valley.

�

�
What many who are opposed to Afzal Guru’s execution apprehend is that he would emerge as another martyr and would give the separatist movement a fresh dose of life and also would lead to fresh recruits to the cause, thereby spawning militancy further.
What is Afzal’s crime? In fact, according to Lawyer and Human Rights activist, Nandita Haksar who has launched a save Afzal campaign, the entire evidence against him was based on his own public admissions of guilt, orchestrated by the Police in front of TV cameras, very soon after the Parliament attack. They also claim that during the trial many procedures were overlooked and evidence undermined, or not allowed to be presented.�
But now that the Supreme Court has upheld his death sentence the only option open is the Presidential pardon, which essentially means, the UPA Government has to take a stand, whether Afzal should hang or live.

Death Sentence or capital Punishment has been a subject of intense debate across the world for decades, if not centuries. Those supporting and opposing it are equally passionate about their stand. But as countries started getting democratized and Human Rights became a major issue, more and countries started abolishing it. In 1977 only 17 countries had abolished death penalty. In 2005 the number stood at 122. Out of them 88 countries have abolished it for all offences, 11 for all offences except under special circumstances, 29 others have not used it for at least last ten years. Among major democratic countries, India and USA are not abolitionist countries. Among the retentionist countries, China has the grimmest record. In 2004 alone it executed 3,400 people, almost 90 percent of the executions, which took place in the world ! In the United States many States have abolished death penalty, but Texas, the state from which President George Bush hails, has however the dubious record of the maximum executions. 370 between 1976 and 2006. Singapore has the highest per capita execution rate, with 70 hangings for a population of 4 million.

Criminologists and Human Rights activists are convinced that death sentence has no salutary effect on future perpetrators of crime, as the retentionists argue. A fact proved more than elaborately in our own Kashmir, as we saw the militancy spin out of control after the execution of Maqbool Butt in 1984.

“Eye for an Eye, will make the whole world blind”, remarked Mahatma Gandhi. And at a time when Gandhi is being re-discovered in this country, will Afzal hanging really take us anywhere towards ending terrorism? The mercy plea before the President therefore is not just a plea from Afzal’s wife Tabassum or his son, Ghalib, whose innocent visage in the newspapers has won the hearts of many, but should be that of a civilized population, trying to find ways, sans vendetta, to combat the causes and dreaded effects of terrorism across the globe. A repenting Afzal, alive and in prison would be a better advertisement for the Indian democratic tradition, than a martyred Afzal who can become the symbol for future generation of militants and terrorists.

09-10-2006