SRINAGAR: In what is like to ratchet tensions further in the Valley, the Centre on Monday ruled out handing over of the body of Muhammad Afzal Guru to his family in Kashmir.
Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said here that “the body has been buried according the jail manual and there was no way it could be handed over”.
J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, Afzal’s family and other major political groups have demanded returning of the body of Guru who was executed on February 9.
Omar had, in his letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last month, demanded the return of the body of Afzal as well as that of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front founder Muhammad Maqbool Bhat who was hanged in 1984.
The Home Minister told reporters here that Guru’ family can come and pay respects at his grave in Delhi.
Afzal Guru was hanged on February 9 and his family was informed through a speed post communication which was delivered to them two days after the execution.
Decision on Malik’s passport at apt time
Home Minister said the government had taken note of a Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front chief Yasin Malik sharing the stage with Hafiz Saeed during his Pakistan visit and action concerning his passport will be taken at the appropriate time.
Shinde said the central government had left it to the Jammu and Kashmir government to take suitable steps upon Malik’s return from Pakistan and he had been placed under house arrest.
Malik had shared a dais with Saeed chief of the Jamaat-ud-Dawa, at a rally in Islamabad last month against execution of Guru. Agencies
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