India’s Great Debate: To Hang Or Not To Hang

Should Mohammed Afzal, convicted for aiding five terrorists who stormed the Indian Parliament Dec 13, 2001, be hanged for his crime? Afzal was sentenced to death by a trial court, and the Supreme Court had later upheld the verdict. He is due to hang October 20 (in less than a week). His family’s mercy petition is pending before the President of India.

Indian TV channels and newspapers are highlighting this debate for the past few days now. But in this debate the “threat element” is surfacing. The hanging of Afzal, who is a Kashmiri, would turn him into a “a hero” and provide “a massive weapon to the separatists”, says former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah.

A Gulf News columnist gives the complete background and debate regarding Afzal.

For more on this debate click here and here.