Death Penalty

EVERYONE IN India has welcomed the Special Courts decision of awarding death sentence to Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Amir Kasab for 26/11, but rights activists and lawyers oppose the death penalty. The big question is that can awarding death penalty to terrorists will act as a deterrent? What message of humanity we are sending around world? Do we have only this punishment? In India, we have two basic camps in this country. One wants to punish the offender with complete banishment from society. Other wants to oppose on humanity ground. I agree that in the end, court has respected countrymen emotions and reflected that the country of intellectuals, psychologists, humanitarians, and religious leaders could not forgive the Pakistani youngster, who was brainwashed by Lashkar masterminds into jihad. In my view if we look at our national crime statistics, on that basis the death penalty is no deterrent. The more important issue is that the death penalty is a barbaric exercise in which no civilized society should participate. The death sentence to the terrorist evades logic as a fidayeen (suicide attacker) like Kasab would only embrace death as his means to martyrdom. He is already prepared to die for beliefs. Besides this, the ruling will not guarantee to stop any further terror attacks against India but would rather be used by the extremist masterminds to instigate violence and more hatred against India. If we are serious about dealing with terrorists, we could do worse than follow the Israeli example. The death penalty has no place in modern society, so nobody's surprised that it's still used in India, China and the United States. There is a punishment worse than death; make the convict endure endless discussion about capital punishment. The rigorous life in prison would be a far worse punishment than a swift death and in the case of terrorists; they took the job fully prepared to die for their cause. The death penalty serves only to assuage a misplaced public sense of retribution and as a tool for pandering politicians. However, majority in India still think that just as in this case Kasab took part in a vicious extermination of innocent men, women and children by using fire arms and explosions, so he should be put to death in much the same way, so that terrorists will know the same fate awaits them, there can be no other way about it. I strongly feel, we have to reform our laws especially for terrorism. Our laws should be such that a punishment should be so rigorous that it

should remind not only to the terrorists but also it should be a living example for the people around him about his in-human act. Each day and night, he should regret his act of crime and same time it should prevent the further terrorist attack. It was a great day for Indians as they celebrated Kasab's death sentence, but it was also reflect that India failed in humanity and added fuel to the fire of terrorism.