Politics over the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru over a decade ago is heating up after former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah’s claim that his execution had served no purpose and defence minister Rajnath Singh shooting back whether he should have been garlanded.

Omar, in an interview to a news agency, said his government had no involvement in Guru’s execution and it would not have granted permission if such punishment was ever sought.

Guru was executed in 2013 by the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre when Omar was chief minister. The two parties were part of the coalition government here.

Omar said the unfortunate thing about Guru’s execution was that the opinion of the Jammu and Kashmir government was not required.

“Otherwise, you would have had to do it with the permission of the state government, which I can tell you in no uncertain terms would not have been forthcoming. We wouldn’t have done it. I don’t believe that any purpose was served by executing him,” Omar said.

Rajnath hit out at Omar during an election gathering in Jammu’s Ramban.

“There used to be sympathy for terrorists. I just heard that National Conference leader Omar Abdullah has said Afzal Guru should not have been hanged. I want to ask Omar Abdullah, if he should not have been hanged, should he have been publicly garlanded? I want an answer to this,” the defence minister and BJP leader said.

Omar is accused in Kashmir of doing little to prevent the execution of Guru.

Many in Kashmir believe Guru was framed in the attack and he had also in a letter to his lawyer claimed that deputy superintendent of police Davinder Singh, who was arrested in 2020 for alleged involvement in militancy, had directed him to take Pakistani militant Mohammad from the Valley to Delhi to arrange his stay there.

Mohammad was one of the five militants who later carried out the Parliament attack. Guru’s claim was not investigated by the CBI and he was subsequently hanged in 2013.