SRINAGAR: The government has said that it will allow family of Afzal Guru to pray at his grave in Delhi’s Tihar jail, but the family have shown no interest in that offer.
Instead they want that his body be returned so that it can be buried in Kashmir.
An empty grave with an epitaph has been reserved for Guru at the “Martyr’s Cemetery” in Srinagar, alongside the one for Maqbool Butt who was also buried at Tihar after hanging in 1984.
Home Secretary RK Singh has also said that Guru’s belongings will be handed over to his family.
The family have also said ‘No’ to government’s reported willingness to fly them to Delhi to visit his grave in prison.
“We will go to Delhi on our own, if it comes to that. We do not want any largesse from the Government. The only thing we want from them is to return Afzal’s body,” said Guru’s cousin, Mohammad Yasin, to the Press Trust of India.
Guru’s family has said that they came to know about the hanging through news TV.
A letter informing his family of the hanging reached his hometown of Sopore in Kashmir yesterday, two days after he died. It had left Delhi a day before the execution.
The government has faced a barrage of criticism for not allowing Guru to meet his family one last time before he was executed for his role in the deadly attack on parliament in 2001.
However, Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said yesterday that the government had not violated Guru’s rights.
Kashmir has been tense since Guru’s hanging. Three people have died in clashes with security forces. Large parts of the state remain under curfew.
