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SRINAGAR: Kashmir's legislature will debate whether to ask New Delhi for clemency for a man sentenced to death for his role in the 2001 attack on the Indian parliament, a lawmaker said Saturday.
Independent legislator Abdul Rashid said he had submitted a resolution to the Kashmir assembly speaker seeking clemency for Afzal Guru.
“Let the house resolve that Afzal Guru be granted amnesty on humanitarian grounds against the death sentence granted to him by the Supreme Court of India,” reads the resolution.
Rashid said executing Guru could have “serious consequences” on the political situation in Kashmir, where people have held large protests against his sentence in the past.
Guru was convicted of plotting the December 13, 2001 raid on the Indian parliament that left 15 people dead, including the five attackers, and brought India and Pakistan close to war.
Guru insists he was not involved in the plot.
More than 47,000 people have been killed since the outbreak of a separatist insurgency in Kashmir in 1989 and anti-India sentiments run high.
“The house will discuss the resolution during the upcoming summer session of the state legislature beginning September 26,” Kashmir assembly speaker Akbar Lone told reporters.
Rashid's move follows the passing of a similar resolution in India's southern state of Tamil Nadu seeking clemency for three men convicted of the 1991 murder of former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.
India's home ministry has called on the president to reject the mercy petition filed by Guru.
Indian-administered Kashmir remains under heavy military control but this summer has not seen the cycle of violence and strict curfews that have rocked the disputed Himalayan region over recent years.
But ruling party members as well as the opposition believe that hanging Guru could break the “peaceful atmosphere” in the region that is divided between India and Pakistan, but claimed in full by both nations.
