NEW DELHI, February 9 (Agencies): Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru who was on the death row since 2002 was hanged. File photo.The government executed Mohammed Afzal Guru on Saturday over his role in a deadly attack on Parliament in 2001 after his final mercy plea was rejected by President Pranab Mukherjee, officials said.
Mohammed Afzal Guru, a former fruit seller, was hanged at Tihar Jail at around 8am, becoming only the second person to be hanged in India in nearly a decade, officials said.
“Yes, he has been hanged,” home secretary RK Singh said.
“President Pranab Mukherjee rejected Afzal Guru`s mercy petition on Feb 3,” Singh told reporters.
“My information is that he will be buried in the campus but it`s the jail authorities who will go by jail manual,” he said.
Guru was found guilty of conspiring with and sheltering the militants who attacked the Parliament in December 2001, an incident that brought nuclear-armed India and Pakistan to the brink of war.
He was also held guilty of being a member of the banned Islamist group Jaish-e-Mohammed, which fights against Indian rule in the divided Himalayan region of Kashmir, where a separatist conflict has claimed up to 100,000 lives. Five armed rebels stormed the Parliament complex in New Delhi on December 13, 2001, killing eight police officers and a gardener before they were shot dead by security forces.
A journalist wounded in the attack died months later.
Sources in Srinagar said an emergency duty among all police officials was called in the morning and curfew has been imposed in Srinagar to stop any violent reaction.