NEW DELHI: Let parliament decide whether the body of Afzal Guru, executed for the 2001 attack on the Indian parliament, should be taken to Jammu and Kashmir as demanded by his family, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Monday.
“Let the parliament discuss whether the body should be brought back or not,” he said.
Afzal Guru, 43, was hanged inside Delhi’s Tihar Jail on Feb 9 morning for plotting the attack on Parliament House that occurred Dec 13, 2001. He was buried inside the jail complex in accordance with the jail manual.
His family in Kashmir has demanded that his body be given back to them and have written to the district officials in Baramulla to take up the matter with the union home ministry.
The family through their lawyer in Delhi also approached the Tihar Jail authorities for the body.
Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde has said that the government could “consider” the family’s request for visiting the grave of Afzal Guru to offer prayers. However, the family has rejected the offer to visit the grave.
In Jammu and Kashmir, life Monday returned to normal in Srinagar and other major towns of the Kashmir Valley after seven days of curfew and two days of separatist-sponsored shutdown following the Feb 9 execution of Afzal Guru.
(IANS)
