Dec 13 attack: Victims' kin return medals

Even as Mohammed Afzal filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking review of the death sentence given to him in the Parliament attack case, families of the securitymen who died in the 2001 attack today returned the gallantry medals they had received in honour of the slain personnel, to the Rashtrapati Bhavan as a mark of protest over the delay in carrying out the sentence.

Accompanied by All-India Anti-Terrorist Front (AIATF) chief M S Bitta on the fifth anniversary of the attack, they also expressed shock over Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil's remarks that they were being provoked by the BJP over the Afzal row.

"We did not order execution of Afzal. It's the court that ordered it. But this vile politics over his death sentence, which is being delayed, has led us to return these medals," Ganga Devi, widow of sub-inspector Nanak Chand, told reporters after emerging out of the presidential palace.

They met the media holding a placard that contained photographs of all the slain security personnel.

The families of the slain securitymen returned the medals to an official at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, saying they should be placed in the National Museum until Afzal, who has been convicted in the case, is executed.

"We will take back these medals after Afzal is hanged," Jayawati, widow of head-constable Vijender Singh said after returning the medal to a Rashtrapati Bhavan director.

The families rejected Patil's remarks in Parliament about them, which they said left them sad and shocked.

"He (Patil) is wrong. His remarks are painful. Our only support is Bitta. We are not going to raise our voice from any political platform," Jagmal Singh, father-in-law of Vijender Singh, said.