Omar Abdullah Says Afzal Guru's Execution Served "No Purpose", BJP Responds

Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah's recent statement that the execution of Afzal Guru, convicted in the 2001 Parliament attack, did not serve any purpose has drawn a sharp response from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). 

"What does Omar Abdullah want to solve? If anti-national elements who hatched a conspiracy against India are given the death penalty, why do they object to this? They want to create a situation by taking support from terrorists. They are taking support from terrorists. That is why he is speaking such language," BJP's Kavinder Gupta, the former Deputy chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, said.

Earlier, regarding the execution of Afzal Guru, Mr Abdullah clarified that the Jammu and Kashmir government had no involvement in the process. He stated that if state approval had been required, it would not have been granted.

"The unfortunate thing was that the Jammu and Kashmir government had nothing to do with Afzal Guru's execution. Otherwise, you would have had to do it with the permission of the state government, which I can tell you in no uncertain terms would not have been forthcoming. We wouldn't have done it. I don't believe that any purpose was served by executing him," Mr Abdullah said on Friday.

His remarks came ahead of the assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir, scheduled to be held in three phases on September 18, 25 and October 1.

There are a total number of 90 assembly constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir, out of which 7 seats are reserved for SCs and 9 seats are reserved for STs.

According to the Election Commission of India, Jammu and Kashmir has 88.06 lakh eligible electors. These are the first assembly elections to be held in Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370.