Sadaf Khursheed
Srinagar, Jan 12 (KNB): Recently a PDP legislator sparked controversy by terming the militants killed in encounters as “martyrs and brothers and said not to glorify their killings”.
Aijaz Ahmad Mir, MLA from south Kashmir’s Wachi said that “Militants, who are from Kashmir are martyrs and they are our brothers, they are our children. His statement was given much hype as the party has the alliance with BJP who termed his this comment as totally intolerable.
On the same lines Shameema Firdous, leader of opposition party National conference while talking to Kashmir News Bureau said that “small children during the unrest took stones for fun into their hands and when they realized that police won’t let them live in peace and would slap them with draconian laws like PSA they joined hands with some groups and uploaded their pictures on social networking sites and after few days they were martyred. She further added that those killed sometimes don’t even get proper training from somewhere, while others are not even linked with any militancy related violence, some of them were innocently killed and I too feel that they were martyrs”.
Aijaz outside the assembly here said that “we should restrain from glorifying the killing of 200 militants, nearly one lakh people have been killed due to militancy in all these years. He further emphasized on the importance of talks to end the cycle of violence in Kashmir.
While the BJP state spokesperson Sunil Sethi condemning this statement said “it seems that the legislator has lost mental balance and he’s talking the language of militants and separatists while taking the oath under the constitution as legislator. He further added that nobody will be allowed to cross the line of nationalism and say such words which can harm the dignity of nation”.
On the other hand, Mir also sympathized with the security forces killed during the encounters saying that “we feel sad when our security forces are martyred as well”. (KNB)