By IANS,
Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah Saturday said he was told about Afzal Guru’s imminent hanging the previous evening and told “to take steps to control the situation” in the state.
Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde had Friday evening told the state government about the decision to hang the parliament attack convict, the chief minister told the media, and appealed for calm.
Afzal Guru was hanged Saturday at New Delhi’s Tihar Jail.
“We were informed to take steps to control the situation in (Jammu and Kashmir),” Abdullah said.
“In contrast to (JKLF chairman) Maqbool Bhat, there was no case against Afzal Guru in the state and as such the chief minister or the government did not have to sign his … death warrant,” Abdullah said.
Bhat was hanged in 1984 in the Tihar Jail.
“Yesterday (Friday) at around 8 p.m. union home minister informed me that all legal formalities had been completed and it had been decided that Afzal Guru would be hanged at 8 a.m. tomorrow),” Abdullah said.
He said the state government had conveyed to the central government its apprehensions about the possible fallout of the hanging in Jammu and Kashmir.
“Curfew has been imposed as a preventive measure. The army has not been called out anywhere. The police and the CRPF are maintaining law and order,” he said.
The chief minister appealed to stay calm and control their emotions. “There are some elements among us who would try to vitiate the prevailing peace in the Kashmir Valley using the development.”
The chief minister accompanied by minister Sajjad Kichloo and Director General of Police Ashok Prasad reached here Saturday to supervise the law and order situation in the valley.