NEW DELHI, Feb 17: About an hour before going to the gallows at Delhi’s Tihar Jail, the Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru had written to his family to be bold and proud on the stature he had attained in the death sentence, The Hindu said in its web report on Sunday.

Guru’s wife Tabbasum handed over a copy of the letter to The Hindu on Sunday. She had received her husband’s hand-written letter last week but opened it exclusively for this newspaper on Sunday.

A loose translation of the letter written in Urdu by Guru at Tihar Jail at 6.25am on February 9 reads as under:

“Respected family members and the devout Muslims.

Assalamu Alaikum Hundred thousand gratitudes to Allah that He chose me for this stature. I also have a sense of gratitude for you, all followers of the faith, that we are all on the side of the truth and the right. Let the hereafter (death) be the end for all of us who are on the path of the truth and righteousness. This is my request to the members of my family that they should all respect the stature I have attained rather than nourishing a sense of loss and repentance.

Be Allah the saviour and the protector for all of you. Allah Hafiz.”

Guru was hanged to death at Tihar Jail between 7.30am and 8am on February 9.

The letter has arrived with a note in English from Superintendent of Tihar Jail, communicating to Guru’s wife that the convict had written it before his execution on February 9 and wished that it should be passed on to his family, The Hindu said.