SRINAGAR: Kashmir’s ruling National Conference party on Saturday hit back at the High Court Bar Association (HCBA) and blamed them for the execution of Afzal Guru.
“Leave aside what NC has or it hasn’t done…all the people deserve to know where were these great lawyers that make up the bar when Afzal Guru wasn’t receiving proper representation and had to rely on an amicus curiae appointed by the courts,” a spokesperson of the party said.
The bar association had said that the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah – who belongs to the NC – “gave consent” to the hanging of Afzal Guru.
“(He) in meetings with the Central Leadership including the Home Minister of India has undertaken to take control of the political, law and order situation in Jammu and Kashmir on the eve of hanging of Mohammad Afzal Guroo,” the HCBA said.
The NC spokesperson blamed the lawyers of complicity and said “They (lawyers) didn’t want to give up the income of their practice to give Guru a decent defense.
They didn’t even want to contribute towards the fees of a decent lawyer so while the accused represented by Ram Jaitmalani and Shanti Bhushan are alive Afzal Guru is not.”
“It is widely believed that if Guru had received proper representation at the trial stage he may still have been alive today.”
“Let the bar not fudge its role in what happened, let it come clean and say yes we let down Afzal Guru,” he said.
