PDP MLA Aijaz Mir courts controversy with 'Kashmiri militants are martyrs, their deaths should not be celebrated' remark

JAMMU: Ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) MLA Aijaz Ahmed Mir courted controversy on Thursday by calling "Kashmiri militants" "martyrs" and "brothers", batting for talks with separatists, and cautioning against glorifying killing of terrorists.

HIGHLIGHTS

• A lawmaker of Jammu and Kashmir's ruling PDP has controversially described terrorists as "our brothers and martyrs whose death must not be celebrated".
• "We should not glorify the killing of terrorists. It is our collective failure," the PDP MLA said.

"Terrorists, who are from Kashmir are martyrs. Yes, they are our brothers. They are our children," Mir, an MLA from from South Kashmir's Wachi, said here, adding, "some of them are minors of the age of 14 who don't even know what they are doing. We should not glorify the killing of terrorists. It is our collective failure."

He said they are children, who have gone down the wrong track, and should be counselled and brought back.

"We should desist from glorifying the killings of 200 militants. Nearly one lakh people have been killed due to militancy in all these years. Let us bat for talks," Mir said outside the assembly here.

He urged the Centre's special representative for Kashmir Dineshwar Sharma to talk to everybody in the state. "He should talk to separatists and militants in Kashmir too," he said.Mir sympathised with the security personnel killed in the state, saying, "We feel sad when our security forces are martyred as well.

We should sympathise with the parents of jawans and with the parents of terrorists as well. We want to stop this bloodshed."Asked about the recent incident when militants hurled a grenade on his residence, the PDP MLA said, "we believe in India and they believe in something else that is why I was attacked. It is a difference of ideology.