NEW DELHI, Oct 4: India President A. P. J. Abdul Kalam will meet on Thursday the family members of Mohammed Afzal Guru, who faces execution for the 2001 attack on the Parliament House.

Afzal’s wife Tabassum, his mother Ayesha Begum and his seven-year-old son Ghalib will be meeting the president with their lawyers for a hearing.

As protests by resistance groups from Jammu and Kashmir continued, Delhi-based human rights groups and India’s home ministry began consultations with the government over the clemency petition submitted by Tabassum at the president’s office on Tuesday.

The ministry also informed the Tihar Jail, where Afzal is lodged, about initiating proceedings on the clemency petition after which the prison authority would put on hold the hanging, which had been fixed for October 20.

The issue of clemency also figured on the sidelines of the ruling UPA-Left Coordination Committee meeting as left parties raised the issue with the home minister, enquiring whether the capital punishment could be converted into a life sentence.

Rightwing Hindutva groups are opposed to clemency for the condemned Kashmiri man.