The modern thinking Indian

Just browsing through some news sites and saw this story. A quote from a Chief Minister no less in support of a convicted mass murdering conspirator. Mr. Farooq Abdullah is advising that Kashmir and in fact the whole of India will go up in flames if Afzal (the convicted conspirator of the Parliament attack case) is hanged. This is something that seems totally out of the ordinary and unlikelt to happen. Most likely it is an attempt on the part of a sidelined politician to bring himself into the limelight again.
Really boggles the mind. This is a convicted conspirator who connived in the attack on the Indian Parliament. If the forces in Parliament had not stopped them at that point, who knows what could have happened had these terrorists managed to enter Parliament. Who knows the amount of shame and bowing the Indian state would have to undergo. The killing of the security persons and the others was in fact a sacrifice that prevented further major heinous happenings. As regards the sentencing, media outlets have highlighted that there is no remorse on the part of Afzal. In addition, he has gone through the entire judicial process that the Indian state promises to any accused and he has been convicted. With the recent court judgement on the scope of the President/Governor to pardon, any such pardon would be very quickly challenged and would be most likely overturned by the court.