NEW DELHI, 19 December 2002 — Three Muslim men from disputed Kashmir were sentenced to hang yesterday for aiding a deadly attack last year on India’s Parliament that almost triggered war with Pakistan.
Judge S.N. Dhingra sentenced the three Indian citizens to death after finding them guilty of murder and waging war against the country. He said they were inspired by Osama Bin Laden and by terrorists in neighboring Pakistan.
The men did not directly take part in the Dec. 13, 2001, attack in which five militants shot nine people to death at Parliament before security forces killed them. But prosecutors said the three helped with planning and logistics.
"I give them death sentences for the attack...They are enemies of mankind. They deserve no leniency," the judge said in sentencing Syed Abdul Rahman Geelani, Mohammed Afzal and Shaukat Hussain Guru under India’s Prevention of Terrorism Act. Guru’s wife was sentenced to five years in prison for failing to alert police about the plot. The defendants had pleaded innocent and their lawyers have said they will appeal.
Police say Mohammad Afzal and Shaukat Hussain were members of the outlawed Pakistan-based Kashmir group Jaish-e-Mohammad. They were picked up in Srinagar two days after the attack.
Geelani, who taught Arabic at Delhi University, was arrested in New Delhi the same day. "You can’t expect justice," Geelani said. "I have been framed."
"By convicting innocents you can’t suppress emotions," the bearded Geelani told reporters as he was led away by police. "Peace comes with justice. If there is no justice there is no democracy. Indian democracy is under threat."
Guru said after the sentencing that he supports efforts to make Indian-controlled Kashmir independent. "If asking for liberation for Kashmir is terrorism, then I’m a terrorist," he said. "I’ll be happy if I die for the cause of Kashmir." He wept as he was led from the court.
Afzal, the other defendant, said, "This is a nexus between politicians and police."
The three men were also fined 1.3 million rupees ($20,800) each.
Guru’s wife, Navjot Sandhu, burst into tears when she was sentenced to five years in prison, plus a 10,000 rupee ($210) fine. If she is unable to pay, she must serve an additional six months in prison.
The death sentences provoked street protests in their hometowns in the mountainous Jammu and Kashmir state, where separatists have waged a 13-year insurgency that has taken 61,000 lives.
In Baramulla, about 55 km (35 miles) north of Srinagar, the summer capital, people shouted anti-India and pro-freedom slogans. Similar protests took place in nearby Sopore, where separatists are active.
"The trial was a state-managed mock show. India has always tried to sabotage the Kashmiri struggle for freedom by calling it terrorism," the All Party Hurriyat Conference, the main Kashmiri separatist group, said in a statement in Srinagar.
When he convicted them on Monday, the judge said the men were part of a plan to kill Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani. They also wanted to hold lawmakers hostage in the red-sandstone Parliament building, he said.
"I hold them guilty of waging war against the country," he told the court. "The persons who help terrorists enter into India and carry out ‘fidayeen’ (suicide) attacks are equally liable for the killing of innocent persons as the hardcore terrorists themselves," he said.
India accused Pakistan’s intelligence agency and Pakistan-based fighters of orchestrating the assault, which nearly triggered a war. India and Pakistan sent hundreds of thousands of troops to their border in a standoff which lasted nearly 10 months.
Pakistan has denied any involvement in the Parliament attack, and condemned it as terrorism. But India has criticized Pakistan’s decision to recently free from detention the leaders of two militant groups accused in the Parliament attack, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed.
As the death sentences were announced, about 50 members of a Hindu fundamentalist group exploded firecrackers in celebration outside the courtroom.
