Shah Abbas

Srinagar

The last letter written by Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru to his wife and son slightly before he was hanged is still unread. The letter was received by the family in down-north on Tuesday evening.

“Yes, the letter, containing the last message of Afzal was received by his wife Tuesday evening but we think it is not the proper time to open the letter because Tabassum and Galib are still in a shock and if     they read the last message of Afzal, it will add to their shock,” Mohammad Yasin Guru, the cousin of Afzal Told Kashmir Life on phone. “We have decided that the envelope would be opened and read latter.”

Guru’s widow Tabbasum and his orphan Ghalib are in Mazebugh in Sopore outskirts. While thousands of people in the periphery are keen to join the mourners, reports said there are physical restrictions prevented such happenings.
Yasin said Afzal’s ‘last message’ will be opened in front of media as and when the family comes out of shock so that every Kashmiri knows about it.

The letter was written by Afzal moments after he signed on his death warrant at around 5.15 on Saturday. It was on his request that the jail staff provided him paper and pen and he wrote this letter. While the letter is in Urdu, jail sources had already reported that it is a two paged letter. While it is obvious that he might have mentioned about his hanging, the possibility of the contents being personal is not ruled out.

“As soon as we gave him a pen and paper he asked us to leave him alone for half an hour. He told us he loved his wife and son very much and wanted to leave a message for them,” a senior jail official is    reported to have said.

After finishing the letter written in Urdu, Afzal handed the two pages to the officials. Asked what he had written, he said it was his “last message” for his wife and kid. “Koi shikwa gila nahin likha hai. Sirf aakhri paigam hai unke liye (I have not written about my grievances or any complaints. I just wrote my last message for them),” Afzal is reported to have said to the jail officials.

Interestingly this is second letter that made news after Guru’s hanging. The first letter posted by the jail staff under the jail manual informing the family about the rejection of their mercy petition (it was actually foiled by his wife and not Guru) and decision to hang him was speed-posted on February 8, on the eve of the hanging day. It was delivered to the family on Monday, February 11, after two days of the hanging.

The second letter was posted after he was hanged. It reached the widow Tuesday evening. Sunil Gupta, law officer, Tihar, Tuesday said that the letter was posted on Saturday afternoon after the 8 am hanging. “We sent it by Speed Post and, hopefully, they must have got it by today,” he was quoted saying.

Afzal has left behind in his cell a collection of books on Urdu poetry, politics and religion, his own writings and a pair of spectacles. “We have kept all his belongings with us and they will be given to the family if the government asks us to do so,” the official added. Afzal’s lawyers have already sent a letter to the jail authorities seeking inventory of his belongings.

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