J&K House lists Guru clemency resolution for discussion, vote —ToI—18.9.11

M Saleem Pandit TNN

Srinagar:Jammu & Kashmir assembly has listed a resolution seeking clemency for Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru for discussion and voting on September 29.
Independent north Kashmir legislator Abdul Rashid Sheikh had submitted the resolution to speaker Mohammad Akbar Lone on September 1. “The resolution is listed in the assembly business at serial number 2,” Sheikh said.
The speaker’s office did not respond to queries about the resolution.
Sources said the Congress high command has asked its legislators to oppose the resolution. The BJP and Jammu-based Panthers Party would follow suit.
Observers say it would be interesting to see how the ruling National Conference deals with the resolution. The party has its base largely in the Valley and would influence its preference over the issue.
Sheikh is hoping to have opposition People’s Democratic Party on his side. He met former chief minister and PDP patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed to garner support.
“The saner political quarters in the state have to join hands to ensure that Guru’s hanging should not happen. (It) will set the state on fire,’’ said Sheikh
“Criminals need reformation and correction and I want the state assembly to pass the resolution for Guru with this spirit,’’ he had said. “It is merely a human problem and should be dealt with humanely.”
Chief minister Omar Abdullah had stirred a hornet’s nest with his tweet that a Jammu & Kashmir assembly resolution seeking clemency for Guru on the lines of Tamil Nadu legislature’s mercy plea for Rajiv Gandhi’s assassins would have created an uproar. Omar’s comment on twitter came a day after the Tamil Nadu assembly passed a resolution urging President Pratibha Patil to reconsider the mercy plea of Rajiv Gandhi’s killers facing death sentence last month.
“If J&K assembly had passed a similar resolution for Afzal Guru, would the reaction have been as muted? I think not,” Omar tweeted. The chief minister had earlier conveyed his reservations about Guru’s execution to the Centre saying he was worried about its fallout in the Valley.
Omar’s apprehension of a political furore appeared justified when the BJP reacted sharply and asked him to refrain from commenting on the issue.
Omar responded saying he would not be bullied a day later and attacked BJP after Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal wrote to the president asking her to re-examine convicted terrorist Davinder Pal Singh Bhullar’s mercy plea. “I’m curious to see what Shahnawaz Hussain & the other BJP chaps are gonna say now,” Omar tweeted. “This is their (coalition) government in Punjab.”