Sameer Yasir
Srinagar
Top Department of Posts officials carrying two letters for the family of Afzal Guru about his hanging and rejection of mercy petition are stuck in the fruit mandi Sopore. Given the tensions in the belt, they are unable to move.
“If they come to us, we will ask them where was this letter for the last three days,” Afzal’s Cousin Farooq Ahmad Buhroo told Kashmir Life. “Home Minster said the family has been informed but the letter has still not reached us even three days after his hanging.”
After Afzal Guru was hanged on Saturday, the Centre government had said that two letters had been sent to his family by speed post informing them about the rejection of his mercy petition and his hanging.
Farooq Ahmad Buhroo said yesterday they had sent someone to Sopore post office in connection with the letter but he was informed by the postal authorities that there was no such letter lying with the post office.
Farooq told Kashmir Life that the authorities should have informed them earlier. “In the age of information and technology, when life has become so fast, is it fair to send a letter through speed post?” he asked. This issue was raised by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah as well who regretted that MHA did not trust the state government so that the family could have met the Parliament attack convict one last time.
Sources said that officials of postal department arrived in Sopore early in the morning but were not able to move beyond the fruit mandi because of the situation in town.
“What is the use of this letter now?” Buhroo said. “They purposely must have told the postal department not to deliver it in time so that we would be kept in dark. The home minster lied about the letter.”
Some people in the fruit mundi have suggested the postal officials to courier the letters to the family. This, they said, will help the letters reach before Guru’s Fourth Day and save the honour of the department if posts!
It was not immediately known when the letters were dispatched. The mercy petition was rejected by president Pranab Mukhrejee on February 3 and the decision to hang the convict was taken soon after.
