Mehbooba Mufti Party Leader Calls Hizbul Terrorist Burhan Wani "Martyr"

Senior PDP leader Abdul Kabir glorified Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani as a 'martyr' during a party programme in Jammu and Kashmir's Kishtwar, triggering a major controversy.

Eulogising the terror commander, Kabir said, "When Burhan Wani was martyred, BJP leaders went to his house with compensation."

When reporters asked Kabir, how he could call a terrorist a martyr, the PDP leader remained defiant.

"It is my choice what I call him. We live in a democratic country and we have the freedom to say whatever we feel like," he countered.

The controversial remarks were made while addressing reporters during PDP workers' convention in Kishtwar.

Burhan Wani, the poster boy of Hizbul Mujahideen, was killed in an encounter in 2016.

The glorification by the PDP leader has invited sharp political backlash.

Amit Raina, spokesperson of Roots in Kashmir, a body representing displaced Kashmiri Pandits, criticised the PDP leader for eulogising a terrorist.

"By calling a terror commander a 'shaheed', he is rubbing salt into the wounds of families of terror victims," Raina said.

The BJP also lashed out at the PDP, accusing it of indulging in terror appeasement.

Senior BJP leader, Yudhvir Sethi, termed the remarks shocking and demanded an apology.

"PDP leaders should apologise to the families of soldiers who laid down their lives fighting terrorism in the Kashmir Valley. Such glorification of terrorists is unacceptable," Sethi said.