Syed Ali Shah Geelani meets Afzal Guru in Tihar jail

Chairman of hardline faction of Hurriyat Conference Syed Ali Shah Geelani recently met Parliament attack case convict Mohammad Afzal Guru at the Tihar jail in New Delhi.
     
Geelani, who was the first separatist leader to visit Guru whose death sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2004 for his role in the Parliament attack in 2001, also met six other Kashmiri prisoners last Thursday.
     
Afzal's wife Tabasum and his son Ghalib had a few years ago met the then president AP J Abdul Kalam and sought pardon for him. The mercy petition is still pending before the president.
     
Geelani, who hails from Sopore which is also the hometown of Guru, told a public gathering after his return from New Delhi yesterday, that he believes that "Guru is innocent".
     
"State terrorism is worst as it uses all its machinery... against innocent people. What can we expect from judiciary that has acquitted innocents after 14 years of jail term," Geelani said referring to the release of four Kashmiris early this month by a Delhi court.
     
The court had on April 8 convicted six out of ten suspected militants of Jammu and Kashmir Islamic Front in the Lajpat Nagar bomb blast case.