A former election commissioner of India T.N. Seshan once said that more than half of the total number of members of the Indian parliament were criminals.

The old sadistic axiom applies here “set a thief to catch a thief”.

Therefore the question is when none of the criminal parliamentarians is sent to the gallows for his known and blatant crimes why the one who was out to pay them back in their own coin has been given capital punishment? It defies logic. Was not the bandit queen made a minister? Should not Afzal be made a member of the Indian Parliament and subsequently a minister? And if he is not made, it will be an act of grave discrimination on the basis of faith.

Afzal belongs not only to the Muslim community but to Kashmir Muslim community. A colonizing country has to go to any length to circumvent the law of the land in order to maintain its colonial possession. This is in addition to pro-Muslim stance of New Delhi Sultans.

New Delhi has played a masterly stroke. Only a stubborn colonial power knows to play it. In order to find an escape route, it managed massive demonstrations of Muslim majority community of Kashmir against the execution of Afzal. This was done to stir up the sentiments of communal and fraternal feeling among the Muslims of the valley. This was done to mobilize human rights organizations in Kashmir, which incidentally are largely funded by the Indian intelligence agencies.

As there is an explicit nexus between the terrorist outfits of Kashmir and the rulers in New Delhi because Kashmir militancy industry has helped turn many papers into millionaires, the understanding between the two is that the last minute withdrawal of capital punishment serves two vital purposes. One is that Kashmir Muslim majority, hitherto vociferously demanding rescinding of the judgment, would feel elated on the presumptive success of making the might of the Indian State bend backwards. Secondly, it would project the Indian State far more humane than either that of Pakistan or Saudi Arabia where the alleged person(s) involved in the conspiracy of assassination of the head of the State in either case was hanged.

The nexus between the Indian government and Kashmir militants is proved once for all by the fact that Bitta Karate, a Kashmiri terrorist, who said in a TV interviews telecast by the Indian government television Doordarshan that after 25 he had lost the count of the Pandits he gunned down in 1990. Sixteen years have passed by and the government of India never has brought him to book. But of course it has put him in class I prison where he enjoys VIP treatment. The Indian government places at the disposal of the known JKLF murderers its airplanes to visit Delhi for the so-called talks with the Home Ministry. The Indian Home Ministry provides Z security to all the militant leaders including Ali Shah Geelani.

The question may be asked why then the drama of announcing the date of execution and creating conditions for loud hue and cry? There is a method in madness. The Indian government, willing to lick the dust for keeping the largest minority vote in hand, would have faced scathing criticism from the Hindu majority of India. It needed to convince them that the law was allowed to take its course. Thus the unsuspecting Indian voter would have nothing to question the intentions of the government. This is how the New Delhi government is hoodwinking the masses of people and carrying on its communal agenda because it must have the crucial minority votes on its side to remain catapulted into the seats of power.

The nexus between the Kashmir militants and New Delhi is an identical replica of the nexus between Pakistan and the United States vis-à-vis radical Islamic terror. Both are publicly committed to the eradication of terrorism.

But then the Government of the military ruler in Pakistan is neither willing to enforce liquidation of radical Islamic centre breeding Theo-fascism nor is it disposed to stop clandestine support of the fundamentalist organizations to re-assembling Taliban in Afghanistan. Yet the Bush administration is generous in waiving hundreds of millions of dollars loaned to Pakistan. Additionally it is offering her more lethal weapon regimes and wherewithal to ensure the stability of the military regime.

This aspect of camaraderie between the US under Bush administration and Pakistan under General Musharraf’s rule is a classical example of promoting Theo-fascisms in the world. It is induction of sabotage, money, arms and subterfuge. It roots go to the Zia era and the rise of Afghan mujahideen.

No power one earth can hang Afzal Guru. He is running the errand of both the Indians and the militants. He has patronage from both. The drama of announcing his execution is a bizarre strategy to catapult a terrorist heavyweight into the seat of power in Kashmir in order to pit him against the supremo of 16 terrorist groups conglomeration called Muttahida Jihad Council in PoK, namely Syed Salahudin. The reason why the J&K Chief Minister is pleading amnesty for Afzal is that he is anticipating a potential rival to him in near future as the chief minister of the state.

The author is the former Director of Centre of Central Asian Studies, Kashmir University, India.

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