To another question, Shinde said the decision to execute

Afzal was not political but done according to rules. Usually the President signs on the mercy petition and the Home Ministry send it for execution. "Even in the other cases, the files were sent to the states concerned. There they (convicts) went for appeal," he said. Giving the sequence of events leading to the controversial execution on Saturday, the Home Minister said he had informed Omar on Friday night. "That was the first time I told him that we are doing it tomorrow morning." Justifying the hush-hush manner in which the execution was carried out, he said the issue was sensitive and secrecy had to be maintained. Shinde, who faced a volley of questions about why the family was kept in the dark, said according to the jail manual the prison authorities must have informed them. When a reporter asked why the execution was done in secrecy if death penalty was to act as a deterrent, he said police investigations and intelligence operations cannot be done in open. "If that is done, the country will not run." (MORE)