Guru Labelled as ‘Martyr’ in the Valley

HUNG\\ Afzal Guru, 43, was hanged inside the Tihar Jail on the morning of February 9, 2013, for plotting an attack on Parliament on December 13, 2001. He was buried inside the jail complex in accordance with the jail manual. The death triggered protests across the Valley. Kashmiri separatists reserved a grave for the “burial” of the body of Afzal Guru at the expansive cemetery at Iddgah in downtown Srinagar, just as they have done for the body of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front leader, Maqbool Bhat. Tucked in a freshly-laid tombstone of cement concrete on Mazar-e-Shuhada, beside Bhat’s empty grave, a black granite epitaph in Afzal’s name was discovered by a group of youngsters. Its inscription in archaic Urdu read: “The martyr of the nation, Mohammad Afzal Guru, Date of Martyrdom: 9th February 2013 Saturday, whose mortal remains are lying in the custody of the Government of India. The nation is awaiting its return.” Bhat was executed in the same prison as Guru for the murder of a police officer and a bank manager on February 11, 1984. Both have been buried on the jail premises. Abdul Ahad, a grave digger, said that not less than 1,000 militants and civilians were buried at the Mazar-e-Shuhada in the past 22 years.