BJP demands Delhi govt to return Afzal mercy petition immediately

New Delhi, Feb 6 (UNI) Delhi BJP President Harsh Vardhan today demanded that Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit immediately return the file regarding the clemency petition of Mohd Afzal Guru, convict in the Parliament attack case, to the Home Ministry with the recommendation to hang him.

This will help in getting the traitor executed early, said the Delhi BJP chief in a letter written to the Chief Minister.

Reminding the CM that nine security personnel were killed in that ''Pakistan sponsored attack'' in which Afzal was involved, Mr Harsh Vardhan said the entire world had condemned the attack while demanding stern punishment for those guilty of the crime.

Denouncing the ''policy of appeasement'' of the Delhi Government which has been keeping the file with it for the last two-and-a-half months Mr Harsh Vardhan said it was regrettable that due to this vote politics of the Congress, the Central and State Government was deliberately trying to postpone the capital punishment of Afzal Guru.

''This will demoralise the security forces. Had Afzal been hanged in time the terrorists would have been demoralised and terrorists activities would have come down. But the message going to the world was that India was a 'soft state' where even terrorists were dealt leniently.'' Expressing surprise over the Delhi Government decision of neither approving nor rejecting the petition, the BJP leader said, ''Even the Supreme Court had held that such an incident had no parallel in history. This is rarest of the rare cases hence Afzal Guru should be hanged.'' When the case concerns national security, sovereignty and integrity, there should be no scope for politics, he added.

Afzal and his family had submitted the clemency petition to the President of India after which the Home Ministry had sent the file to the Delhi Government for its recommendations last year since then the file is lying unattended with the government.

UNI