New Delhi: As the debate rages over the death penalty of Parliament attack case convict Afzal Guru, 'Narmada Bachao Andolan' leader Medha Patkar, Magsaysay award winner Dr Sandeep Pandey and other noted human rights activists have raised their voice against capital punishment.
The activists, under the banner of National Alliance of People's Movement, have appealed to President A P J Abdul Kalam to revise Afzal's death statement, as the "inhuman and terminal punishment cannot be the solution to any violence or even terrorism".
In a press release they said, "We, the people struggling for non-violence, peace and justice in India and across the world, appeal to the Hon'ble President of India to reprieve the death penalty of Afzal Guru."
The statement released by them said that when the peacekeepers all over the world are crying halt to the capital punishment, India the birth and work place of Gandhi going against this will send a wrong massage against our value framework.
The activists, who claimed that the capital punishment goes against the fundamental right to life granted by the Indian Constitution and Article 6 of UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, expressed fear that the incident might further widen the divide amongst religious communities.
Citing the ongoing series of protest against Afzal’s death penalty across the Kashmir valley, they apprehended that the execution might result in eruption of fresh violence in the state.
"Though the ghastly act of the armed attack at the Parliament, at the railway compartment or elsewhere is highly condemnable, no one would say that killing a man would stop this from re-occurring," they said.
"It is in the name of peace and justice as also communal harmony and humanity that we earnestly appeal to the Hon'ble President of India to take a firm position against hanging Afzal Guru," they added.
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