JAMMU: Jammu and Kashmir’s main opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) Wednesday announced a boycott of the remaining session of the state assembly over the union home minister’s refusal to return parliament attack convict Afzal Guru’s body to his family.
“The home minister (Sushil Kumar Shinde) has insulted the sense of the house by refusing to return mortal remains of Afzal Guru. So, there is no use to sit in a house which has been insulted,” PDP president Mehbooba Mufti said while announcing the party’s decision.
Mehbooba also claimed that the home minister has also insulted sentiments of Kashmiris by not returning Guru’s body. “The National Conference (ruling the state in alliance with the Congress party) has brought down the state onto its knees,” she said.
The state assembly met for the budget session Feb 28. The session concludes on April 5.
The legislative assembly on March 4 had debated an adjournment motion on the issue moved by the PDP. The motion was also supported by the National Conference and Communist Party of India-Marxist. Some other Kashmir-centric splinter groups had also favoured the motion.
Afzal Guru was hanged to death Feb 9, after remaining on death row for about eight years for plotting the attack on the Indian Parliament on Dec 13, 2001. He was buried in Delhi’s Tihar jail.
The Kashmir Valley has witnessed unrest and protests ever since Guru was executed. Separatist leaders have said they will continue their protest programmes until Guru’s body was returned for burial in the valley.
People have reserved an empty grave for Guru at the “Martyr’s Cemetery” in Srinagar, alongside a similar one kept for Maqbool Bhat, another leader who was hanged and buried at the Tihar in 1984.
(with inputs from IANS)
