Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah is exploring possibilities of intervening to stop the hanging of parliament terrorist attack convict Mohammad Afzal Guru, fearing it would create new complications in the state like those created by hanging of Mohammed Maqbool Bhat in 1984.

Abdullah told a Kashmir news agency that he was consulting legal experts on his locus standi in the case and whether the central government would seek his opinion as Afzal is a Kashmiri. He said he had asked the advocate general to give his opinion about the technical and legal aspects of the case

Abdullah is afraid of the kind of criticism his father and then chief minister Farooq Abdullah attracted for signing Bhat's death warrant. Technically, the president does not need his opinion for deciding on Afzal's clemency petition as both the crime and trial took place in New Delhi while Abdullah Senior's opinion had been sought since Bhat committed crime in Jammu and Kashmir and he was also tried in the state (though hanged in the Tihar Jails here).

Strongly disfavouring hanging of Afzal, Abdullah said he would not put his signature on the death warrant if required. “I am against death sentence and I want to make it clear that if I am required to sign Afzal Guru’s death warrant, I will not do it,” the chief minister said.

He said problems cannot be solved by hanging people. “The hanging of Maqbool Bhat did not solve any issue but created more complications,” he said.