Pakistan reacts cautiously to Afzal Guru's execution

Islamabad: Pakistan on February 11 reacted cautiously to the execution of Afzal Guru, hanged for his role in the 2001 attack on the Indian parliament, saying it did not want to "go into details" of his trial.

Responding to a question regarding the hanging of Guru, Foreign Office spokesman Moazzam Khan said he "would not want to go into details of the trial process". The matter was "being discussed and debated by the media and the human rights organizations", he said in a statement.

"However, we reaffirm our solidarity with the people of Jammu and Kashmir and express our serious concern on the high-handed measures taken by India in the wake of Afzal Guru's execution to suppress the aspirations of Kashmiris by arrests and detention of Hurriyat leaders, curfew, news blackout and other coercive means," Khan said.

Rights activist in Pakistan have criticised the execution and questioned the evidence that was used to convict him.

Pakistan calls for the "lifting of repressive measures and immediate release of Hurriyat leaders", he said. Kashmiri groups and organisations like the Jamaat-ud-Dawah have organised protests in several Pakistani cities against the hanging of Guru.

Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front chief Yasin Malik, currently on a private visit to Pakistan, held a 24-hour hunger strike and demanded that Guru's body be handed over to his family.

Guru was hanged and buried in Delhi's Tihar Jail on February 9. Rights activists in Pakistan have criticised the execution and questioned the evidence that was used to convict him.

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