“I don’t believe that any purpose was served by executing him,” Omar Abdullah said on Afzal Guru’s execution in 2013.The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday lashed out at National Conference vice president Omar Abdullah over his remarks on the execution of 2001 Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.
“The unfortunate thing was that the J-K 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,” Abdullah, who was serving as the chief minister of erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, told ANI.
Abdullah’s remarks have triggered a storm ahead of the Jammu and Kashmir assembly elections.
Union minister of state for home Nityanand Rai said,”Omar Abdullah’s statement is extremely objectionable and anti-India, any amount of criticism is not enough… He is speaking in favour of such terrorists… The Congress is with such anti-India statements. There is no difference between Abdullah and Congress… The people of India will not forgive this.”
Former J&K deputy chief minister Kavinder Gupta told ANI,”After all, 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.”“Omar Abdullah is openly supporting Pakistan’s policy and Pakistan so that he can win the election. He is scared after the loss in the Parliament election,” BJP leader Altaf Thakur said.