And seeing the agitation and public mood, theruling coalition politicians — including Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad andPDP chief Mehbooba Mufti — have lent their support to the demand that MohammadAfzal, sentenced to death for the 2001 terror attack on Parliament, be pardoned.
Highly placed official sources say that the J&K Chief Minister has citedpublic sentiments in the Kashmir Valley and requested the Prime Minister to usehis good offices to obtain Presidential clemency for Afzal. Mehbooba Mufti,whose PDP is part of the ruling coalition, has also called for a review of Afzal'sdeath sentence, saying it could affect the peace process in Kashmir. "I'llsuggest that all (political parties)— the Congress, National Conference andPDP and other mainstream parties— should together appeal to the President tochange this sentence from death to life imprisonment," she said.