JK CM denies he asked for clemency for Par attack convict

New Delhi, Oct 31 (UNI) Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad today denied that he had sought clemency for Parliament attack convict Mohammad Afzal.

''I do not think that any one from Jammu and Kashmir has asked to let him (Afzal) go scot-free. They only wanted to get his sentence changed from capital punishment to life sentence,' he told reporters on the sidelines of a book release function here.

Asked why did he take so much time to deny the reports, he said he did not contradict because of administrative difficulties.

''I have a state to run,'' he said apparently referring to the violent protests in Srinagar against the death sentenced handed down to Afzal.

''I do not run a 24-hour news channel that I should keep on making comments every now and then,'' he remarked.

He said he had never asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh about this but had briefed him on only two issues--increase of Haj quota for the state and the agitation over the Supreme Court's order on Afzal's hanging.

''...it was projected that sources close to the Chief Minister said he (Azad) had sought clemency for Afzal... It is sad that no one sought any clarification from me on the issue,'' Mr Azad said.

Afzal was sentenced to death by the Supreme Court for his role in the terrorist attack on Parliament in which eight members of the Parlaiament security staff were killed.

Asserting that life sentence was harder than the death sentence, Mr Azad said spending life in jail was more rigorous a punishment than ending life in a second.

He did not elaborate.

Earlier speaking on the book, written by state bureaucrat Pervez Dewan, Mr Azad said people of Kashmir and Pakistan had nothing in common except religion.

''Religion is the only common thing between people on both sides. If religion is the uniting point, then all the Arab countries should have been one,' he added.

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