41 Facts About Afzal Guru

Mohammad Afzal Guru was a Terrorist, who was convicted for his role in the 2001 Indian Parliament attack.

Afzal Guru received a death sentence for his involvement, which was upheld by the Indian Supreme Court.

Afzal Guru's body was buried within the precincts of Delhi's Tihar Jail.

Afzal Guru was a member of a Pakistan-based Jihadist terrorist organisation Jaish-e-Mohammed.

Habibullah ran a timber and transport business, and died when Afzal Guru was a child.

Afzal Guru completed his schooling from Government School, Sopore and passed the matriculation exam in 1986.

Afzal Guru subsequently enrolled in the Jhelum valley medical college.

Afzal Guru had completed the first year of his MBBS course and was preparing for competitive exams when he began to participate in other activities.

Afzal Guru crossed the Line of Control and proceeded to Muzaffarabad, Pakistan administered Kashmir.

Shaukat who was a friend of Geelani, made Afzal Guru visit Geelani and they used to discuss Jihad and the "liberation" of Kashmir at length.

Afzal Guru took up a job with a pharmaceuticals firm and served as its area manager.

On 29 December 2001, Afzal Guru was sent to 10-day police remand.

However, after seven months, Afzal Guru disowned this confession and the Supreme Court did not accept the earlier confession as evidence against him.

Journalist Vinod K Jose claimed that in an interview in 2006, Guru had said that he had been subjected to extreme torture which included electric shocks in private parts and being beaten up for hours along with threats regarding his family after his arrest.

Between the time of his arrest and the time when initial charges were filed, Afzal Guru was told that his brother was held in detention.

An appeal was made to the Delhi High Court, but after going through the case and taking into consideration various authorities and precedents, the Court found that the conviction of Afzal Guru was correct and hence his appeal was dismissed.

Afzal Guru was represented by senior counsel Shanti Bhushan and Colin Gonsalves.

The co-accused in the case, SAR Geelani and Afsan Afzal Guru, were acquitted by the High Court 29 October 2003.

Afzal Guru filed a review petition before the Supreme Court seeking review of its judgement.

Afzal Guru was meted out three life sentences and a double death sentence.

In June 2007, Supreme Court dismissed Afzal Guru's plea seeking review of his death sentence, saying "there is no merit" in it.

In December 2010, Shaukat Hussain Afzal Guru was released from Delhi's Tihar Jail due to his good conduct.

Arundhati Roy and Praful Bidwai castigated the trial and argued that Afzal Guru has been denied natural justice.

Afzal Guru warned that his organisation would launch agitations if Afzal was pardoned.

Afzal Guru criticised statements of various political leaders and blamed them for "encouraging activities of terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir".

Afzal Guru was hanged six days later on 9 February 2013 at 8 am.

Jail officials have said that when Afzal Guru was told about his execution, he was calm.

Afzal Guru expressed his wish to write to his wife.

Afzal Guru wrote the letter in Urdu, which was posted to his family in Kashmir the same day.

Afzal Guru performed his morning prayers and read a few pages of the Quran.

The execution of Mohammed Afzal Guru was named Operation Three Star.

Afzal Guru's family was informed of his execution two days after by a letter sent through Speedpost, a fast courier service, to their home in Sopore.

The secret operation surrounding the execution of Afzal Guru was code named Operation Three Star.

Afzal Guru's body was buried on prison grounds to prevent a public funeral.

Soon Kashmiri students from Delhi University and Jawaharlal Nehru University accompanied by members of CPI, Peoples Union for Democratic Rights and National Confederation of Human Rights Organisations started a counter-protest in support of Afzal Guru and chanted slogans in support of an independent Kashmir.

Justice SN Dhinga, the Judge who sentenced Afzal Guru and co-accused Shaukat Afzal Guru and SAR Geelani to death in 2002, termed the execution a political move stating that the judiciary took just three years to decide the matter while the executive took eight years to implement the same.

Afzal Guru said the "biggest tragedy" of the execution was that he was not allowed to meet his family before he was hanged.

Afzal Guru suggested that the centre was "selective" in avenging attacks on symbols of democracy and backed the allegation that the legal process in the Parliament attack mastermind Afzal Guru's case was "flawed".

The Hindu published in an article by Praveen Swami where he mentioned that legal experts have cast no small doubt on whether Afzal Guru received a fair trial, whether his guilt was proved and whether his death penalty was legitimate.

Afzal Guru mentioned that the key actors in the attack were likely to get away, because no one could investigate them.

Afzal Guru defended the secrecy government maintained in the execution saying that it would not have happened had the decision been made public in advance.