JK CPM leader urges President to consider Guru's mercy plea

New Delhi, Sept 27 (UNI) Jammu and Kashmir CPI(M) leader Mohammad Yusuf Tarigami today urged President A P J Abdul Kalam to consider the mercy plea of death-row convict Mohammad Afzal Guru, in the larger interest of restoring peace in the troubled-state.

''We urge the President to intervene and consider Guru's mercy plea. The peace process must continue and reach its logical conclusion,'' Mr Tarigami said.

A city court yesterday pronounced the execution, by hanging till death, of Kashmir-born Mohammad Afzal Guru, convicted in the December 13, 2001 Parliament attack case, in Delhi's Tihar jail on October 20.

The decision has evoked protests in the Kashmir valley.

More than 70 protestors were wounded and several others arrested during demonstrations, mostly by JKLF activists .

Mr Tarigami said some prominent citizens have also sought an appointment with Dr Kalam to impress upon him the ''sensitivity of the matter''.

Separatist leaders, including those from both the factions of the Hurriyat Conference, have protested the court order.

People came out in large numbers on streets to protest against the order at Doabgoan in Sopore, the hometown of Afzal Guru.

Guru along with Delhi University lecturer S A R Geelani and cousin Shaukat Hussain Guru were sentenced to death by a special POTA court on December 18, 2002.

The court had also sentenced Afsan Guru, wife of Shaukat Guru, to five years' rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 10,000 for concealing knowledge of the conspiracy. The Delhi High Court had later acquitted Geelani and Afsan Guru in the case.

The Supreme Court confirmed Afzal Guru's death sentence on August 4, 2005 and changed the capital punishment awarded to Shaukat Guru to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment.

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