Afzal's family returns with glimmer of hope

With full of hope and prayers in their hearts, Mohammad Afzal Guru's wife and son returned to Srinagar on Saturday after approaching President A P J Abdul Kalam for commutation of his death sentence in the Parliament attack case.

"We are anxious but very hopeful that the President will consider our mercy plea in a positive way," Afzal's wife Tabassum told PTI in New Delhi before leaving for Srinagar on Saturday morning along with her seven-year-old son Ghalib. The family was in the national capital for five days to garner support.

Though the President is still in the process of seeking legal opinion on their petition, the family got a glimmer of hope when the scheduled execution of Afzal on October 20

was put on hold after filing of the mercy petition by his wife.

During their stay in New Delhi, the family went to meet Afzal at the high-security Tihar jail and persuaded him to file a mercy plea, a demand that he rejected claiming he has lost all hope of getting justice from anywhere.

A sit-in was also organised by noted writers, human rights and peace activists and academicians against the death sentence given to him for the attack on Parliament that left 14 people dead including five armed assailants. The family also participated in the dharna.