Click to play videoNew Delhi: Among the many questions doing the rounds with regard to Mohammad Afzal, accused in Parliament attack case, a crucial one is: Was he a surrendered militant?
"Yes," he insists. In letters that he is supposed to have written to his lawyer, Afzal said he was regularly tortured by the Kashmir Special Task Force (STF). And those arguing in his favour insist that the STF used his militant past to make him a scapegoat in the Parliament attack case.
But investigations conducted by CNN-IBN’s Special Investigation Team, revealed that Afzal may have never surrendered.
"Till now, they don’t know who attacked Parliament. Who were those five people who were inside and got killed? Mr (L K) Advani, who was the Union Home Minister at that point of time, said that they looked like Pakistanis. They are Pakistanis. I say that Mr Advani looks like a Pakistani and Musharaff looks like an Indian to me. So, this is no proof," says S A R Geelani, a Delhi University lecturer who was acquitted in the case.
Geelani has joined those who are opposing the death sentence given to Afzal. Veteran Gandhian Nirmala Despande wrote to President APJ Abdul Kalam, saying that many questions remain unanswered with regard to Afzal’s trial. Those who question the fairness of Afzal's trial, point to some letters Afzal reportedly wrote to give his version of the story.
But then, do those campaigning for Afzal's clemency have all the facts before them? Are they sure that the contents of Afzal's letters are true? CNN-IBN Special Investigation Team found out that some crucial details are missing from Afzal's letters.
On the question of his past, Afzal does say that he is a surrendered militant. So does the Delhi Police and the Supreme Court. But his elder brother says he never surrendered.
"Yeh real bat hai, uska surrender maine kiya hai. Afzal ne nahi kiya. Yeh real baat kissi ko pata nahi hai. Aaj kal S A R Geelani likh raha hai BSF mein surrender kiya tha. Usne nahi, maine kiya tha. Aur kahan kiya tha shupiye mein bandook le ke kyonki bandook Afzal ki padi thi aur usko zang usko lagne laga to. Tab voh Dilli mein pad raha tha. Bandook main leke gaya tha BSF ke paas. Maine udhar jama karvaya, dafa karvaya. Humme kya karna hai isko. Maine kaha usko militancy main jaana nahin hai, mujahid bannna nahin hai. Usne kaha main chod doonga, maine ka dafa karo, he says. (The reality is that Afzal didn’t surrender before the BSF; I merely deposited a rusting gun he owned with the BSF. This is the truth, not every body knows this, not even Geelani, who claims that Afzal had surrendered before the BSF. I gave the gun to BSF because we had no use of it and Afzal had promised that he would not become a militant.)
Afzal's wife Tabassum says he did have a surrender certificate, but his lawyers lost it in the sessions court. "Wo gayab ho gaya. High Court mein jab dena tha na usko, Colin Gonsalves ko usnay maanga, toh woh wahan nahi thha. Phir usnay sabhi kaghazon mein dhoondha toh nahi mila," says Tabassum. (The certificate disappeared. When the case was in the Delhi High Court, Afzal asked for the certificate from his lawyer Colin Gonsalves but couldn’t find it. We searched for it everywhere but couldn’t find the certificate.)
The J&K Police do not have Afzal’s name in their list of surrendered militants. "We have a record of surrendered people and I’ve not seen any claim being made that he has surrendered," says IG, J&K Police.
The Supreme Court accepts that Afzal was a surrendered militant. But the J&K police deny it. It's hard to believe that the prosecution just forgot to use this against Afzal in his trial. For some reason, both Afzal and the police concealed this fact. Nobody knows why.
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