SRINAGAR: Family of Mohammed Afzal guru, hanged in Delhi’s Tihar jail in February this year, have said they are disappointed with what it called a “dull political campaign” by Kashmiri separatists to bring back his mortal remains.
They have also criticised the Omar Abdullah-led government over the hanging of Guru, ordered death by the Supreme Court for involvement in the 2001 attack on the Indian parliament.
Guru hanged on February 9, was buried in the jail premises itself.
Separatist leaders, including leaders from both factions of the separatist alliance Hurriyat Conference, had formed a joint consultative committee to press for demand of returning Guru’s mortal remains for burial in the valley.
An empty grave has also been reserved for the same at the Martyr’s cemetery in Eidgah, downtown Srinagar.
Guru is the second Kashmiri separatist to be hanged in three decades after Mohammad Maqbool Butt
Guru’s brother told a local news agency, KNS, that the committee did nothing except issuing statements “that too concerning their own interests”.
“Let me tell them that freedom movements are not taken to their logical conclusions by issuing mere statements,” Aijaz Guru said.
“When separatists could not get mortal remains of my brother…how do they expect people to believe that through their ‘statements’ they will get the freedom?”
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had also said that he wrote to the central government seeking return of Guru’s remains. So did his predecessor, Mufti Mohammed Sayeed.
But New Delhi refused.
Aijaz Guru said “It is our moral and religious right to give Shaheed Afzal decent burial. But as of now it seems people at the helm of affairs have forgotten the issue leaving the family disappointed and helpless.”
