The Sonia Gandhi-led UPA did not have the guts to hang Afzal on October 20, but the HAV and ABVP activists hanged the effigies of this criminal involved in the attack on Indian Parliament. ABVP and Hindu Aikya Vedi (HAV) activists marched to the Secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram and to the Collectorates in other districts of Kerala and hanged Afzal'seffigy. Speaking at the protest dharna the leaders said that the minority appeasement policies of the UPA regime were the prime cause of rising Islamic extremism. They called for sacking of the Azad government in J&K and imposition of President'srule for demanding clemency for Afzal. They said Farooq Abdullah should be arrested for inciting communal disharmony, sedition and for threatening death for the judge who singed the death warrant on Afzal. They also attacked the CPM for advocating clemency for Afzal. They said the CPM was returning the debt to the Islamic terrorist organisations like SIMI, NDF, INL, etc. for the support given during the polls. (S.C.)
