‘His family soft about terrorists…’: BJP hits out at Omar Abdullah over remarks on Afzal Guru’s execution

Union Minister of State for Home Affairs and BJP leader from Bihar Nitayanad Rai has lashed out at the Nammu and Kashmir National Conference Vice President, tagging the later as 'anti-India'. The heated remarks come after Omar Abdullah remarked that he was not in favour of 'capital punishment', adding that the execution of the 2001 Parliament attack case convict, Afzal Guru, did not serve any purpose.

Rai, on Saturday, slammed Omar Abdullah and commented that the leader from J&K was 'speaking in terrorists of such terrorists'.

"Omar Abdullah's statement is extremely objectionable and anti-India; any amount of criticism is not enough... He is speaking in favour of such terrorists", Rai told reporters on Saturday.

Further slamming the Congress and NC alliance in Jammu and Kashmir for the upcoming J-K Assembly elections, Rai remarked, "... The Congress is with such anti-India statements. There is no difference between Abdullah and Congress... The people of India will not forgive this..."

Afzal Guru was one of the key conspirators of the attack on the Indian Parliament in 2001. Guru was hanged in 2013 at Tihar Jail.

Afzal Guru was convicted of conspiracy in the December 2001 attack on Parliament that killed six security personnel and one civilian. He was on death row for nine years as the government dithered over taking a final decision on his mercy plea.

This was partly due to the legal efforts undertaken by Afzal Guru’s family to seek relief and also the lack of willingness on the part of the government to carry out the execution.

Omar Abdullah, earlier on Saturday had said, “The unfortunate thing was that the J&K government had nothing to do with Afzal Guru's execution.”

During the interview with ANI, Abdullah added, "Otherwise, you would have had to do it with the permission of the state government, which I can tell you in no uncertain terms would not have been forthcoming. We wouldn't have done it. I don't believe that any purpose was served by executing him."

Defending his point, Abdullah added that he does not believe in capitalist punishment. He claimed that evidence has shown time and time again, "that it may not be in India, but in other countries, that you have executed people and found that you are wrong.”

BJP leader Ravi Shankar also hit out at Omar Abdullah and termed his remarks as ‘irresponsible and anti-national'. 

Defending the decision to execute Afzal Guru, Shankar commented, “Afzal Guru was given death punishment by the law. The matter went to the Supreme Court, and even a review was done but he was found to be involved in anti-national and terrorist activities.”

Citing the upcoming J-K Assembly elections, Shankar added, “To win the election, will you talk about breaking India? It's good that his real face has just been exposed. The people of Kashmir and BJP won't let his conspiracy to weaken India be successful.”

Jammu and Kashmir assembly polls will be held in three phases on September 18, 25 and October 1.