MUZAFFARABAD, Dec 19: AJK Jamaat-ud-Dawa Amir Maulana Abdul Aziz Alvi has flayed the death sentence handed down to three Kashmiris by an Indian court in connection with the last year’s dubious attack on the Indian Parliament in New Delhi.

The special court judge, S.N. Dhingra, handed down death sentences with a fine of Rs25,000 ($500) each to Mohammed Afzal, a 35-year-old fruit merchant; Shaukat Hussain, a former student of Delhi University, and S.A.R. Geelani, a New Delhi college teacher.

The three were convicted under the controversial Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA), the Indian Penal Code and Explosive Substances Act.

Afshan Guru, the Sikh wife of one of the accused, was sentenced to a five-year rigorous imprisonment with the fine for not disclosing information to police. The three men were also given life terms which they will serve if they win their appeal against the sentences.

Describing the punishment under the black laws as highly condemnable, Maulana Alvi called for declaring India a terrorist country.

The Jamaat-ud-Dawa, which is headed by Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, is believed to be the parent organization of Lashkar-i-Taiba, which India blames for a number of daring attacks.

“Let it be clear to the Indian government that the flame of freedom movement cannot be extinguished with such punishments,” Alvi said in a statement issued here.

“It should simultaneously be clear to India that the Kashmiris will never forget such terrorist actions on its part and will take reprisals,” he added.

Maulana Alvi recalled the hanging of Maqbool Butt, a top Kashmiri guerrilla leader, in New Delhi’s Tihar Jail in Feb 1984 and said India had assumed at that time as well that with his death the freedom struggle in Kashmir would die down.

“But, time has proved that India’s assumption was wrong,” he said, pointing out that the movements for freedom get a new boost with the blood of martyrs.

Maulana Alvi called upon the international human rights organizations to take immediate notice of the “unlawful punishments and play their role in saving the lives of the oppressed and innocent Muslims.”