New Delhi:
The government has refuted reports that the family of Afzal Guru was not informed that he would be executed this morning in Delhi for his role in the attack on Parliament in 2001.
Home Secretary RK Singh says that Guru's family in his home town near Sopore in the Kashmir valley, just 30 kms from Srinagar, was sent a letter via speed post which disclosed that his petition for clemency had been rejected by President Pranab Mukherjee on February 3 and that he would be hanged in Tihar Jail.
Sources at Tihar Jail say he woke up as usual at 5 am for his prayers and was then put through medical tests to check his blood pressure, pulse were stable, required by law for convicts before they are executed. Sources also say that Afzal Guru's body will not be sent to Kashmir. He will be buried at Tihar Jail in Delhi where he spent nearly eight years on death row.
Curfew has been imposed in Srinagar and surrounding areas to prevent reactionary violence. Many in his home state agree with human activists who say that Afzal guru was not given a fair trial.
He was arrested days after five terrorists drive into the Parliament complex and opened fire. They were shot dead. Nine other people, most of them security personnel, were killed in the shootout.
Both houses of Parliament had been adjourned just before the attack and several parliamentarians were still inside the building.