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| India-Pakistan |
| Afzal was a terrorist linked to Jaish says his brother |
| 2006-11-27 |
| Amid the pleas for clemency on behalf of Parliament attack accused and death row convict Afzal Guru, his elder brother, Aijaz in a sensational disclosure claimed that Afzal was a terrorist linked to Jaish-e-Mohammed, according to a CNN-IBN special investigative report. The news channel has claimed that the entire truth in the Parliament attack case never reached the courts or the public, and that both Afzal and the police were 'dishonest'. The police never presented Aijaz as a witness. Aijaz has also claimed on camera that Afzal never surrendered. "I surrendered his weapon to the STF. Nobody knows this," he stated. The CNN-IBN investigation revealed that the J&K Special Task Force had intelligence that Afzal Guru was a conduit for Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Ghazi Baba. Despite knowing this, the STF admitted it did not keep track of Afzal after releasing him in 2000. Admitting this, DSP, Police Control Room, Jammu and Kashmir said: "Once Afzal was released, nobody kept a track of what he's up to. Soon after his release, he was involved in the Parliament attack case." Aijaz told the channel that, "The decision of the Supreme Court is right. I swear to God the truth is that Afzal was working for Jaish-e Mohammad. He was involved in the attack." Aijaz's admission is a big blow to the clemency-seekers who have claimed that investigating agencies and police fabricated evidence to prove Afzal's involvement in the Parliament attack. The news channel's probe also revealed a vital information that had never surfaced in the courts: That Afzal's younger brother, Hilaal was arrested along with Afzal. Hilaal told the channel that contrary to police claims, no recoveries were made from them. Hilaal, the only eyewitness against the police version, was never produced in Afzal's defense. This supported the claims of those campaigning for Afzal's clemency that he did not have a competent lawyer in the trial court. While Aijaz has denied that Afzal surrendered before the police, Afzal's wife Tabassum said she did have a surrender certificate but lawyers in the Sessions Court had lost it. But contradicting Tabassum's claims, SM Sahai, Inspector General, J&K Police says, "We have a record of the surrendered and I've not seen any claim being made that Afzal surrendered." The Supreme Court accepted that Afzal was a surrendered militant. The J&K Police say no. But the prosecution never used this against Afzal in his trial. Both Afzal and the police concealed this vital fact. IG SM Sahai says, "As per our investigation, this man was believed to have links with Ghazi Baba but we never got anything concrete against him so he was not detained or prosecuted." The channel claimed that in June 2000, Afzal was picked up and tortured by then Superintendent of Police, STF, Dravinder Singh. "Yes, I tortured him. We were informed that he could lead us to Ghazi Baba. His brother Aijaz said they'd help us capture Ghazi Baba," Singh said. The channel claimed that Aijaz promised to tip-off the STF about Ghazi Baba's whereabouts as a trade off for Afzal. Four years later in 2004, Ghazi Baba was killed in an encounter and Aijaz helped the STF identify him. Ironically, despite knowing that Afzal was in regular touch with Ghazi Baba, the STF did not mount continuous surveillance on him. And a year later, Afzal became an accused in the terrorist strike on Parliament. Dravinder Singh admitted that had the STF kept him under continuous surveillance - the attack on Parliament could have been prevented! The channel pointed out that in 2000, J&K STF identified Afzal as a Jaish-e-Mohammad operative, but the STF did not testify the same during Afzal's trial in court. The Supreme Court had said in its judgement that there was no evidence of Afzal being a member of a terrorist organisation. None of the 80 prosecution witnesses ever alleged that Afzal was in any way associated or belonged to any terrorist organisation. In his letters, Afzal alleged that the Delhi Police fabricated evidence against him. The contents of the letter, however, never came up in the trial. It is also clear that the security forces and investigating agencies have concealed information during Afzal's trial. There was mystery surrounding the existence of an alleged Jaish-e-Mohammad operative Tariq, who supposedly introduced Afzal to Mohammad. According to the Delhi Police, the two subsequently planned the attack. But the J&K STF denied there was anybody by the name of Tariq in their records. Amid all the controversies, one fact has never been disputed either by Afzal in his letters, or by those campaigning for his clemency, or by the police in Delhi and J&K that Afzal did bring Mohammad from Srinagar to Delhi. Mohammad was the terrorist killed in the Parliament attack. Yet, in this statement recorded in the trial court under Section 313 of the Criminal Procedure Code, Afzal claimed he never identified the body of Mohammad. |
| Posted by:john |
| #1 Remind me not to break any laws anywhere near Superintendent of Police Dravinder Singh. At least he didn't "encounter" Afzal, RAB or Mumbai squad style... |
| Posted by: john 2006-11-27 16:16 |