Click to play videoBhupendra Chaubey
New Delhi: The family of Mohammad Afzal Guru, the man sentenced to death in the Parliament attack case, met President APJ Abdul Kalam on Tuesday with a mercy plea.
Sources have also told CNN-IBN that there is a strong possibility Afzal's hanging could well be postponed from the set October 20 date.
For his family, Mohammad Afzal will remain not guilty and will always be someone who has been framed.
Says his brother Ejaz, "The court has given a verdict and changes can still be made. We have come to appeal to the president. However, I think that all NGOs should stay away from my brother's case. Everyone is trying to use him for their own interests."
Ironically Afzal himself has not signed the mercy plea petition.
A reason for this could be that even those who are supporting Afzal are not ready to pronounce him totally not guilty and are distancing themselves from the earlier position that he is innocent.
Their focus at the moment is simply to save Afzal from the gallows.
Delhi University teacher S A R Geelani - who incidentally was a co-accused in the Parliament attack case but was later acquitted - says, "I won't say whether Afzal is guilty or not. "
But the families of those who died in the attack on Parliament, the verdict should be just one and they are very clear about what it should be - Afzal must hang.
However, there is some confusion within the political fraternity. Politicians in the Kashmir Valley are in favour of a Presidential pardon, but at the Centre, the Congress and its UPA allies are maintaining a studied silence.
But for the BJP, the issue is just too good to be missed.
Says BJP Spokesperson, Prakash Jhawdekar , "If a man is not hanged for
as serious a crime as attack on Parliament, then what will he be hanged for?
Those who support Afzal should be apologising to the nation."
Afzal's hanging is becoming increasingly linked to minority politics at the Centre. In the days ahead there will be increasing pressure, both on the Prime Minister as well as the Congress President to take a stand on this issue - one way or the other.
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