The family members of executed terrorist Afzal Guru want his belongings - glasses, clothes and a radio - to be returned to them, but a Tihar Jail official Sunday said the government was yet to take a decision on the issue.
A Tihar jail official, on condition of anonymity, told IANS: "According to the jail manual, an executed prisoners' property has to be returned to the family."
However, talking to IANS, Director General (Prisons) Vimla Mehra said: "Afzal Guru's belongings are in our possession. The government will take the decision whether his body or his things are to be given to the family."
"Afzal Guru's wife Tabassum and his family members have already demanded his body so that the last rites could be performed in accordance with Islam," Afzal Guru's cousin Yaseen Guru told IANS on phone from Sopore in Jammu and Kashmir.
"For the family, Afzal Guru's glasses, radio, which he used to hear in the jail, and clothes have a lot of significance," he said.
"His glasses are the most precious for Tabassum and their 12-year-old son Ghalib," said Yaseen Guru.
"If the government cannot give his body to us, then at least, they should return his belongings," he said.
"It is the family's right to get back his belongings from the jail. We will meet government officials and (make a) demand for it," said Afzal Guru's lawyer N.D. Pancholi.
Soon after Afzal Guru's execution Saturday, Pancholi wrote to the Tihar Jail chief, on behalf of the convict's family, seeking permission to perform his last rites in accordance with their religious traditions.
Guru was hanged to death at 8 a.m. outside his cell in Tihar Jail and buried quietly soon after for his role in plotting the audacious Dec 13, 2001 attack in which 10 people were killed when five armed terrorists stormed into the parliament complex when at least 100 MPs were inside.