Delhi parliament attack plotter hanged

Afzal Guru, sentenced to death over his role in a deadly attack on India's parliament in 2001, has been hanged in Delhi's Tihar jail after his mercy petition was rejected by Pranab Mukherjee, the Indian president, officials have said.

Guru, a former fruit seller from India-administered Kashmir, was hanged at Tihar Jail at around 7:30am local time (02:00 GMT), becoming only the second person to be hanged in India in nearly a decade, officials said on Saturday.

Confirming the news, India's Home Secretary RK Singh said after the execution: "This is only about the law taking its course."

"The mercy plea of Afzal Guru was rejected few days ago", Venu Rajamony, the president's spokesperson, said in the early hours of Saturday.

Guru was originally given the death sentence in 2004 for his involvement in the 2001 attack that left at least nine people dead, including eight policemen.

Five armed rebels, who stormed parliament in New Delhi on December 13, 2001, were shot dead by the security forces.

Guru was found guilty of conspiring with and sheltering the fighters who attacked the parliament, an incident that brought nuclear-armed India and Pakistan to the brink of war after India blamed its neighbour for the attack.

He was also held guilty of being a member of the banned group Jaish-e-Mohammed, which fights against Indian rule in the divided Himalayan region of Kashmir, where a separatist conflict has claimed up to 100,000 lives.

His wife filed a mercy petition on Guru's behalf in 2006.

Major towns in India-administered Kashmir have been placed under curfew since news of Guru's execution was first broadcast. Barricades were erected and hundreds of police and paramilitary forces deployed.

Politicians have been told not to leave New Delhi for fear of violence.

Guru's conviction, which has been delayed on several occasions, was both highly political and hotly contested. He described his imprisonment as a "gross miscarriage of justice" in his mercy appeal to the president.

A spokesperson of India's main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Rajiv Pratap Rudy said on Saturday that despite the delay in the execution, the nation was happy that Guru is hanged.

"The entire opposition, the entire country was hoping that he should be hanged. This action is delayed but undoubtedly it's a welcome action," he said.

A group of activists including lawyers have campaigned for him, saying his trial had major problems, including fabricated evidence presented by the police and the lack of proper legal representation.

Protesters against his "unfair" conviction in Muslim-majority Kashmir have held demonstrations demanding his release, while right-wing Hindu activists have long demanded his execution.

Guru was initially convicted along with Shaukat Hussain, a former student at Delhi University and SAR Geelani, a New Delhi college teacher, who were also handed the death sentence, reserved for the "rarest of rare" cases in India.

His wife, Afsan Guru, who was found guilty of not disclosing information to police, was also sentenced to five years in prison but had her conviction overturned on appeal.

Geelani was also freed on appeal after two-years of imprisonment, adding to the doubts about the initial trial.