"We sent it to the President on January 21, 2013. On

February 3, the President sent Guru's file rejecting the mercy plea to the Home Ministry. "I put my signature on February four and sent it for further execution to the department. The due procedure was followed and it was then decided that the hanging will take place on February 9 at 8 AM," Shinde said. Similar to the hanging of Mumbai attack convict Ajmal Kasab, a Pakistani national, on November 21 last year, the execution of Guru, was kept under wraps in a top secret operation. In Kashmir, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah appealed to people to maintain calm and not allow those with vested interests to exploit the situation. He denied reports that Army has been called in. Moderate Hurriyat Conference led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has declared a four-day mourning. A complete shutdown will be observed during this period, Shahidul Islam, spokesman of the amalgam, said. Guru is the second Kashmiri militant to be hanged after JKLF leader Maqbool Bhat who was executed on February 11, 1984 for the murder of Indian diplomat Ravindra Mhatre in United Kingdom. The attack on Parliament had escalated Indo-Pak tensions with India scaling down diplomatic presence in Islamabad, revoked air links and mobilised troops along the western border. Guru was sentenced to death along with Delhi University professor S A R Gilani and Shaukat Hussain. Hussain's wife Afsan was let off. Gilani was, however, let off by the High Court in 2003 while the sentence of Guru and Hussain was upheld. The Supreme Court confirmed the death penalty of Guru in 2005 while in the case of Hussain, it was commuted to 10 years. On December 13, 2001, five heavily-armed gunmen stormed the Parliament complex and opened indiscriminate fire, killing five Delhi Police personnel, a woman CRPF official, two Parliament watch and ward staff and a gardener. A journalist, who was injured, died later. All five terrorists were shot dead by security forces. Guru was arrested within hours after the attack from a truck in the national capital.