Afzal Guru Hanged II: Issues

[This follows from Should we celebrate, and Court ruling.]

Some people have asked me why I am bothered by the hanging of Afzal Guru.   In fact, was it not long overdue, they ask? Because it has been nearly seven years since the Supreme Court verdict gave the death sentence.  Why should there be an objection when the law of the land is actually enforced?

Afzal Guru was convicted for his involvement in the attack on Indian Parliament that took place in 2001 which was widely telecasted by all TV channels in India.  He was sentenced to death by Supreme Court in 2006, and he was hanged on 09 February 2013.  When the news came out that he was hanged in a ‘secret’ operation, many Indians celebrated the event, the way they had earlier celebrated the hanging of Ajmal Kasab, the sole surviving Pakistani terrorist who attacked the city of Mumbai killing many innocent people, an attack which was also widely telecasted by all TV channels, including many international channels. 

Afzal Guru hanged: Should we celebrate?

Throughout human history, capital punishment was used as a tool to punish the criminals, and as a deterrent, for crimes ranging from treason to murder, from religious crimes to rape, adultery, etc.  

Various methods were used to kill the convicted.  Some of these methods are:  decapitation (removing the head with an axe or sword), disembowelment (cutting the abdomen to remove the intestine), impalement (piercing a person using pole through length of the body), execution by burning (tying the person to a stake and burning till death), dismemberment (killing a person by pulling out legs and hands), crushing (by placing stones or using elephants), sawing (hanging the person upside down and then sawing the person starting at the groin), crucifixion (person is nailed to a wooden cross and left to die), boiling to death (by immersing in boiling oil or water), flaying (death by removing the skin of the body), slow slicing (removing parts of the body slowly with a knife), or blowing from a gun (a head blown from cannon).