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Faced with Bharatiya Janata Party's criticism of the Congress party, the Sheila Dikshit-led Delhi government on Tuesday decided to back the Supreme Court's verdict to hang Afzal Guru, an accused in the Parliament attack case. However, while backing the SC's verdict, the Delhi government has reportedly maintained that it will need to examine the law and order implication in case Afzal was hanged, an NDTV report quoted sources as saying. The Delhi government has been sitting on the file for nearly four years and the capital punishment awarded to Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Amir Kasab in the Mumbai attacks case brought the issue under fresh focus. Guru was awarded death sentence by a Delhi court on December 18, 2002 after being convicted of conspiracy to attack Parliament on December 13, 2001, waging war against the country and murder. The death sentence was upheld by Delhi High Court on October 29, 2003 and his appeal was rejected by the Supreme Court two years later on August four, 2005. A sessions court also fixed the date of his hanging on October 20, 2006 in Tihar jail. Following this, Afzal filed a mercy petition with the President, who forwarded it to Union Home Ministry for its comments. The Union Home Ministry had sent the file to Delhi Government's Home Department for its comments, as per the laid out procedure. The 2001 Indian Parliament attack, led to the death of a dozen people; five terrorists, six policemen and a civilian). It also caused increased tensions between India and Pakistan resulting in the 2001-2002 India-Pakistan standoff. On that day, a group of gun-and grenade-wielding terrorists who stormed the seemingly impregnable Parliament House premises, were stopped dead in their tracks by security men as the nation watched in disbelief.

Delhi Govt backs SC's verdict on Afzal Guru