Parliament attack martyrs’ families boycott function

Mangalore Today / PTI

New Delhi, Dec 13: The Members of Parliament and security personnel held a tribute for the nine martyrs who lost their lives in the 2001 Parliament attack. However, the families of most of the martyrs skipped the event upset over the delay in the hanging of convict Afzal Guru.

 

 

Five terrorists entered the premises of Parliament on December 13, 2001 and began indiscriminate firing. Many MPs were inside Parliament at that time. All five terrorists were killed. However, eight security personnel and one gardener lost their lives.

The families say they have been suitably compensated; a government job has been given to one member of each household. But in delaying the death sentence of Afzal, they say justice has been denied.

Though the government has kept most of the promises to the families of the martyrs, they claim it’s the delay in hanging Afzal Guru that is an insult to those brave men.

Twelve people died in the attack and the number of accused is also 12. However, ten years on, families of those who lost their lives are still wating for Afzal Guru to be hanged.

Md Afzal Guru has sought mercy pardon, Shaukat Hussain Guru, Afzal’s cousin, was freed after completing his 10-year term in December 2010, Shaukat’s wife, Afsan Guru, was acquitted and Delhi University Professor SAR Geelani was also acquitted.

Maulana Masood Azhar and co-conspirator of the attack Tariq Ahmed is at large in Pakistan. The five terrorists who carried out the attack were killed in the counter attack and the main conspirator Ghazi Baba was shot dead in Kashmir in 2002.

The December 13 attack turned international opinion against Pakistan with parallels being drawn with 9/11. Ten years later, India might have managed to put the state sponsor of terror tag on Pakistan, but little has changed.

Earlier this year, in the wake of news coming in that Afzal Guru could be hanged, came September’s Delhi High Court blast. The message coming in from terrorists that they can strike at will whenever, wherever, world opinion not withstanding.