Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru hanged

Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru was hanged in the national capital's Tihar Jail at 8 a.m. Saturday, less than a week after President Pranab Mukherjee rejected his mercy plea, officials said.

"Afzal Guru was hanged at 8 a.m.," Home Secretary R.K. Singh told reporters.

"We received the president's rejection of his mercy plea on Feb 3. We moved accordingly then," he said.

Security has been stepped up in some towns, he added.

Afzal Guru was given the death sentence by the Supreme Court in 2004. His hanging was scheduled for October 2006, but was stayed after his wife filed a mercy petition.

Nine people were killed in the Dec 13, 2001 parliament attack when five heavily-armed Pakistani terrorists drove into the Parliament complex and opened fire. There were about 100 MPs in the building at the time of the attack.

The terrorists were shot dead.

Guru was convicted of plotting the terror attack.

Asked if he had been kept in the loop, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said: "Absolutely."

He told CNN-IBN that Guru's body will be buried within the jail campus, according to the jail manual rules, and not handed over to his relatives in Kashmir.

The burial would be done according to religious rites, he added.

"As per jail manual, the burial of a convict is held inside the prison campus," he said.

He also said he did not apprehend any law and order problems.

A curfew has been clamped in parts of Jammu and Kashmir.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has been repeatedly demanding the execution of Afzal Guru and questioned the delay in his hanging, welcomed the execution, but said it was a "delayed decision".

Rajiv Pratap Rudy of the BJP said: "Hanging of Afzal Guru is the right thing. We welcome the decision. The people of the country were waiting for it. But it was a delayed decision." - IANS