New Delhi:
Punjab's ruling party the Shiromani Akali Dal today sought Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's intervention to save death row convict Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar from the gallows.
The party sought the Prime Minister's intervention on humanitarian grounds and urged him to take a sympathetic view.
They said they wanted clemency for Bhullar as it is an emotive issue for the Sikh community and it will be a good step in national interest.
The Congress party in the state also supported Bhullar's clemency. "The man has already spent 10 years in jail. In my opinion, the matter should be looked into. I am against capital punishment," Punjab Congress chief Captain Amarinder Singh said.
The BJP has, meanwhile, skirted the queries on Bhullar.
"Afzal Guru is tried and convicted for attacking Parliament, the seat of our sovereignty, where our elected representatives sit. Can anyone's position change on that?" BJP leader Nirmala Sitharaman said.
President Pratibha Patil on May 26 rejected the mercy petitions of Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar of Punjab and Mahendra Nath Das of Assam following recommendations from the Union Home Ministry.
Bhullar was sentenced to death by a trial court on August 25, 2001, for plotting terror attacks on Punjab SSP Sumedh Singh Saini in 1991 and the then Youth Congress president M S Bitta in 1993, which led to several deaths in Delhi. He was associated with the Khalistan Liberation Force.
A couple of days ago, Bhullar's advocate K T S Tulsi had urged in the Supreme Court that either his mercy petition should be decided expeditiously or alternatively his death sentence be commuted. (With PTI Inputs)