Terming the statement of Afzal Guru’s lawyer ND Pancholi as “eye-opener”, Jammu and Kashmir’s pro-freedom leader and chairman of Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) Shabir Ahmad Shah Thursday said the approach of Indian administration with regard to Muslims of India and “occupied territory of Jammu and Kashmir was always biased.”
“These two institutions of India (administration and judiciary) have always resorted to prejudice by trampling all the norms of justice and human values while dealing with cases related to the Muslims of their own country and those of the occupied state of Jammu and Kashmir,” Shah during his continuous house arrest while commenting on noted human rights lawyer and Indian civil society member ND Pancholi’s statement said.
Pancholi had asserted that the mercy petition of Afzal Guru never reached the President of India and that the then government was eager to hang him (Guru).
Shah said the Supreme Court’s verdict of sentencing Afzal Guru to gallows “to satisfy the collective consciousness of the nation” is totally “unjustified” and termed the stand of ND Pancholi against “partial and prejudiced” approach of Indian judicial system as “courageous” and “based on truth”.
“If the death sentences of killers of the then Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh and Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi were commuted to life imprisonment, why was the whole Indian establishment eager to hang Afzal Guru. Actually, it (hanging of Guru) was a failed attempt and cheap political stunt by the then Congress regime to stop its political opponents,” Shah maintained.
Commenting further, DFP Chairman said the execution of Muhammad Maqbool Bhat was also carried in the same “dubious” way by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi just days after the murder of Indian ambassador in UK Mr Marthur.Click Here To Follow Our WhatsApp Channel
“As hostility ends with the death of enemy, it is the limit of hatred that the successive governments of India didn’t even return the mortal remains of martyrs Maqbool Bhat and Afzal Guru nor were their families allowed to meet them,” he said.
Expressing disappointment over the hanging of Yaqub Memon and “denial of justice to him”, Shah said this all was executed due to Memon’s Muslim identity. “Such kind of revengeful capital punishments to Muslims are carried by India to suppress and terrorize them and keep them at bay from seeking any kind of justice or raising voice for their rights. But history is witness that such kind of repressive measures only reinvigorate the spirit of victims and oppressed.”
Severely criticizing the Indian judicial system, Shah said the perpetrators of worst inhuman crimes of Babri Masjid demolition, Godhra massacre and Muzaffarnagar riots were not even questioned but were elevated to top posts in government. “How can we affiliate our future with the country like this where the terms like justice don’t exist and whose whole system harbors hatred towards Muslims. The country has ceased to be Gandhiji’s abode and turned out to be an abattoir for Muslims,” Shah questioned.
He reiterated his demand of return of mortal remains of Maqbool Bhat and Afzal Guru and urged world powers to “support our genuine cause of freedom from Indian occupation.”