Sunday Times 2
Protests erupt as India executes man
View(s):NEW DELHI, Feb 9, (AFP) – A Kashmiri separatist was executed today in New Delhi over his role in a deadly attack on the Indian parliament in 2001 — triggering protests on both sides of the border in disputed Kashmir.
A demonstrator hangs an effigy depicting Mohammad Afzal Guru during celebrations in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad
Hundreds of demonstrators rallied near the family home of Mohammed Afzal Guru in northern Indian Kashmir hours after authorities said he had been hanged, while similar protests were held across the frontier on the Pakistani side.
Guru, 43, was hanged at New Delhi’s Tihar Jail after Indian President Pranab Mukherjee rejected a mercy appeal. He had been found guilty of conspiring with and sheltering the militants who attacked the parliament in December 2001 — an event that brought nuclear-armed India and Pakistan to the brink of war.
India’s main opposition party welcomed the execution, but one of Guru’s co-accused who was later cleared said it was a travesty of justice and the New York-based Human Rights Watch described it as “inhumane”.
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