New Delhi, Feb 9: Welcoming the decision to hang Afzal Guru, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday tweeted that the decision to hang the 2001 Parliament attack accused is better late than never.

Modi tweeted: "Der aye, durust aye (It's better to be late than never)."

Afzal Guru, the main accused in the December 13, 2001 terror strike on the Indian Parliament, was hanged on Saturday morning in Delhi''s Tihar Jail.

The Union Home Ministry confirmed the hanging of Guru this morning. Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said that Afzal Guru was hanged inside the Tihar Jail at 8 a. m. this morning.

President Pranab Mukherjee had rejected his mercy plea on February 3.

In the wake of his hanging, curfew has been imposed in several areas of Jammu and Kashmir in anticipation of protests. The army is on high-alert in the state.

Guru was given the death sentence by the Supreme Court in 2004. His hanging was earlier scheduled for October 2006, but was suspended or stayed after his wife had filed a mercy petition on his behalf.

Sources were quoted, as saying that President Mukherjee had informed the Union Home Ministry that he had rejected the mercy petition on January 23.

In December 2001, five heavily-armed terrorists drove into the Parliament complex and opened fire. Nine people were killed, most of them security personnel. All five terrorists were killed.

At that time, proceedings in Parliament was adjourned even as several lawmakers were inside. A few days later, Guru was arrested on the charge that he had masterminded the terror strike.

The main opposition BJP has repeatedly questioned the delay in Guru''s execution, and its leaders last questioned the government in Parliament on the 11th anniversary of the attack (December 13, 2012). (ANI)