Jammu: Maintaining that final decision on the mercy petition of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru rests with the President, the Centre`s Interlocutors on Kashmir on Saturday said the issue will have no impact on their final recommendations to the Government.
"On the question of Afzal Guru, the final decision obviously rests with the President. We do not wish to comment any further," head of the three-member team of Interlocutors, Dilip Padgaonkar, told reporters here today. Flanked by the two other Interlocutors -- Prof Radha Kumar and MM Ansari -- he said, "It (Guru issue) shall have no bearing on the recommendations we are going to make in our final report."
He was replying to questions about the Afzal Guru issue and its impact on the Interlocutors` final recommendations on Jammu and Kashmir to the Centre as well as their opinion over the mercy plea.
"If you want to ask me my personal opinion, I have said so before and I again reiterate here (that) I am against capital punishment," Padgaonkar said. “However, capital punishment is on the statutory book and son long it is on that book, there is little we can do," he said, adding, "But, I have said that the final decision has to be taken at the highest level".
PTI