Sir — The Supreme Court has commuted to life imprisonment the death sentence awarded to three convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, citing the 11-year delay on the part of the Union Government to dispose of their mercy petitions.
The apex court said that prolonging the execution of capital sentence has a “de-humanising effect” on condemned prisoners who have to face the “agony” of waiting for years under the shadow of death.
That may be true. But the decision to commute the death sentences of Rajiv Gandhi’s killers will make Kashmiris to question Afzal Guru’s hanging. That which is valid for Tamilians can also be valid for Kashmiris.