Afzal Guru's belongings to be returned to his family

Afzal Guru's belongings like books, clothes, spectacles and a radio are likely to be returned to his family by authorities of Tihar Jail where the Parliament attack convict was hanged in an operation shrouded in secrecy.

"We will follow the jail manual on the issue," a senior Tihar Jail official said.

He said as per the jail manual, belongings of an executed prisoner has to be returned to the family.

43-year-old Guru had a "good" collection of books and he used to spend most of his time either alone or with books in his 16-feet long and 12-feet wide cell in Jail No 3. He had a radio and he used to listen to FM channels regularly.

Guru, a medical college drop out and resident of Sopore in North Kashmir, was executed at 8 AM and buried on the prison premises in a secret operation yesterday.

On the death row for over 10 years after conviction for his role in aiding and abetting the attack, a special court had sentenced Guru to death in December 2002 which was upheld by the Supreme Court on August 4, 2005.

Guru was found guilty of conspiring and sheltering the militants who attacked Parliament on December 13, 2001, in which nine persons were killed.

The mercy plea of Guru was rejected by President Pranab Mukherjee on February 3.