Congress and BJP activists clash in Shivpuri over Afzal Guru

Shivpuri (Madhya Pradesh), Jan 30 : Activists of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress party clashed here during a demonstration by the BJP, demanding execution of a death sentence handed down to Afzal Guru, the prime accuse in the Parliament attack case of December 13, 2001.

"Police and administrative officials were present there. If they had wanted, they could have stopped us. But as soon as we reached the Congress party office, their workers started raining stones on us," claimed Yashovardhan Sharma, a BJP activist.

The Congress, however, refuted the charges.

"We were sitting inside our party office, the BJP workers had a plot and attacked our office with stones. One of our workers is injured," claimed Sanjay, a Congress party activist.

Police eventually quelled the protest in which several received injuries.

On December 13, 2001, five gunmen stormed the heavily guarded Parliament complex and killed nine people before being shot dead.

Mohammad Afzal Guru is one of the main accused in the case, and a trial court awarded him the death punishment, which was also upheld by the Supreme Court.

However, Afzal's scheduled hanging on October 20, 2006 was put off after his wife had submitted a mercy petition to the then President of India, A P J Abdul Kalam.

ANI