Terrorist not a martyr: Jitendra

JAMMU: Union Minister Jitendra Singh today tried to play down the "Kashmiri militants are martyrs" remarks of a PDP MLA, calling it a "stray comment" and said the government was firm on its stand against terrorism. Aijaz Ahmed Mir stoked a controversy yesterday when he described Kashmiri militants shot dead in encounters with security forces as "martyrs" and "brothers" and also cautioned against glorifying their killings.
"If a stray comment is made by a stray person, it is not to be given any importance. But as far as we are concerned, a terrorist is a terrorist and a terrorist only," Singh told reporters here in reply to a question seeking his reaction over the remarks.
"Terrorism is to be dealt in the way terrorism is dealt.
We have zero tolerance against terrorism and government is clear on this stand and will continue to follow this stand," he said.
The union minister said such comments amount to disrespecting the nation's security forces.
"By saying anything, terrorist cannot be a martyr and by making such an apologetic statement about terrorists, who engineer terrorist acts, amounts to disrespecting security forces," said Singh.
The PDP MLA's remarks came as an embarrassment for his party as its alliance partner the BJP decried the comments saying these were "absolutely intolerable" and demanded an FIR against him.