India misleading world by giving wrong number of those hanged

LAHORE: Apart from the more well-known Yaqub Memon (hanged on July 30, 2015), Afzal Guru (sent to the gallows on February 9, 2013), Ajmal Kasab (hanged on November 21, 2012) and famous Kashmiri separatist leader Maqbool Bhat (hanged on February 11, 1984), numerous other Muslim convicts have been given capital punishment since partition in 1947 for crimes ranging from anti-state activities, murder and conspiracy etc, writes Sabir Shah.
It is imperative to note that India is among the 36 countries that retain capital punishment in both law and practice, but hav often cited very funny statistics in this regard.
For example, as the “Times of India” had reported on March 10, 2005, the Indian government had claimed that it had only executed 55 convicts since Independence, starting with the implementation on the death sentence given to one Rasha alias Raghuraj Singh on September 9, 1947 at the Jabalpur Central Jail.
This was followed by the high-profile execution of Nathuram Godse and Narayan Apte on November 15, 1949 in the Mahatma Gandhi assassination case.The New Delhi-based “People’s Union for Democratic Rights,” an organisation committed to legally defend civil liberties and human rights, had promptly contradicted the Indian government claims by making public its research that in fact, not fewer than 1,422 executions were carried out just in one single decade (1953-1964).
The “People’s Union for Democratic Rights” had actually found this information in the appendix of the Indian Law Commission’s 35th report on death sentence!!The Indian Law Commission’s report had given a state-wise breakup of executions in the period between 1953 and 1964.
The report had revealed that during the decade under review, Tamil Nadu had topped the list with 485 executions followed by 397 in Uttar Pradesh, while Punjab and Andhra Pradesh had executed 140 and 119 people respectively during the same period.
The

National Law University of New Delhi had also conducted a similar fact-finding exercise, only to embarrass the Indian government.Amnesty International had later reported that at least 100 people were sentenced to death (but not executed) in 2007, 40 in 2006, 77 in 2005, 23 in 2002, and 33 in 2001.
Research conducted by the “Jang Group and Geo Television Network,” by consulting the National Law University of New Delhi’s “Death Penalty Research Project,” shows that dozens of Muslim convicts have also been hanged in India during the last 68 years.
With execution dates in brackets, here follow brief details in this context:
Sayed Ghulam Ali (April 9, 1947), Ali Hussain (December 19, 1949), Karim (December 12, 1950), Abdul Rehman and Imran Khan (August 5, 1952), Hafeez Ali (July 31, 1953), Abdul Lateef (October 29, 1954), Imam Ali (June 9, 1957), Akbar Ali (December 18, 1957), Shamsher Khan and Sher Mohammad (May 10, 1958), Abdul Khalique and Asghar Ali alias Ashu (May 12, 1958), Fakir Ahmed (November 8, 1958), Bahadur Khan and Shahzadey Khan (May 16, 1959), Mohar Ali (May 20, 1959), Abbas Khan and Wazir Khan (August 28, 1959), Haq (December 6, 1959), Wahid (December 30, 1959), Naseem Ahmed (March 28, 1961), Shahidur Rahman (April 1, 1961), Kasim Khan (April 19, 1961), Ajmal Khan (April 22, 1961), Sultan Khan (May 6, 1961), Rafiq Ali (November 3, 1961), M.D. Sharif (November 13, 1961), Munnay Khan (June 7, 1962), Ibrahim (July 16, 1963), Sajid Ali (April 3, 1964), Sultan Modal (October 22, 1963), Akbar Ali (April 10, 1964), Ali Hussain (May 23, 1964), Nisar (August 24, 1965), Babu Khan (October 27, 1965), Umar Khan (November 11, 1965), Manzoor Ahmed (October 26, 1966), Messrs Hasan Datagar, Dadasab Datagar and Abdul Fakir Datagar (1967), M.D. Yaqoob and Sami-ud-Din (November 27, 1967), Ehsanul Haq (March 6, 1968), Bholay Khan (April 19, 1968), Akbar Khan (February 25, 1972), Naeemuddin (December 28, 1972), Nathu Khan (March 5, 1974), Munawwar Haroon Shah (November 27, 1983) and Shahzad (January 27, 1984) etc.
Just to recall, in December 2007, India had voted against a United Nations General Assembly resolution calling for a moratorium on death penalty and had again upheld its stance on capital punishment by voting against yet another UN draft resolution in December 2012 seeking to ban death penalty.