20 January 2004	Tuesday	27 Ziqa'ad 1424

NEW DELHI, Jan 19: India's supreme court on Monday stayed the death penalties handed to two Kashmiris for their role in an attack on the parliament in 2001.

The court set aside the penalty ordered by the Delhi high court and a lower trial court to Mohammed Afzal and Shaukat Hussain Guru, who were convicted of conspiring with five attackers who tried to storm the parliament in Dec 2001.

In October last year, the high court upheld the death penalty on the two Kashmiri men pronounced by the lower trial court in Dec 2002. But it freed two others - S.A.R. Geelani, a Delhi University lecturer in Arabic, and Afsan Guru, wife of one of the convicts.

On Monday, the supreme court issued notices to S.A.R. Geelani and Afsan Guru, ordering them not to leave the country. The two were released in October after the high court ruling.

The supreme court said the next hearing in the case would be on Feb 20. Five armed men stormed the Indian parliament on Dec 13, 2001, killing eight police officials and a gardener before they were shot dead by troops. A journalist wounded in the attack died months later of his wounds. -AFP