‘If death penalty was solution, Army camp wouldn’t have faced attack’

(Express Photo by Praveen Khanna)

J&K Independent legislator Engineer Rasheed on Saturday said that if capital punishment could bring peace in the Valley, then the Afzal Guru squad of Jaish-e-Mohammad would not have carried out the attack on the Army camp in Jammu.

Addressing a seminar on the topic “Is Capital Punishment the Solution?”, Rasheed said, “If capital punishment was a solution, then militancy would have not started after the hanging of Maqbool Bhat and Afzal Guru,’’ he said. The seminar was organised by his Awami Ittehad Party on the death anniversaries of Afzal Guru and JKLF founder Maqbool Bhat.

No one would have dared pick up a gun after their hanging, Rasheed said, adding that he is not an enemy of India. Rasheed, MLA from Langate constituency , said the separatist Hurriyat Conference represents sentiments and sacrifices of the people and accused its leaders of having “diminished their stature by their own actions”.