Former Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Monday criticised the government’s handling of the death of terrorist Burhan Wani, adding that the government in its pursuit of publicity through the death of the terrorist, made him a “hero” and caused further unrest in Kashmir.
“The Union government should have handled the death of Burhan Wani sensitively. The unrest took the lives of 45 more people, which could been avoided,” said Mr Shinde. He was speaking on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of Pune Shramik Patrakar Sangh in Pune.
Mr Shinde also pointed out how the UPA government had “silently” dealt with the execution of both Afzal Guru, who was convicted in the attack on Parliament, and Ajmal Kasab, the Pakistani militant who took part in the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai. “We had tightened security in such a way that only two riots took place in Kashmir after the execution of Guru. Later, no untoward incident followed. In the case of Kasab, I was getting calls from journalists asking about movements in Yerwada jail but we disclosed the information after execution to avoid people going to court and staying the execution and (to avoid) riots. But this government in pursuit of publicity made a terrorist like Wani a hero, which caused riots in Kashmir,” he said.
However, the Congress leader also expressed the need to continue dialogue with Pakistan and the separatists for peace to prevail in the region. “We should not forget that Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir is along the border and dialogue is the key. The UPA government was in communication with Syed Ali Shah Geelani, a separatist leader in Kashmir, constantly for maintaining peace in the region but we never made it public,” he said. He also pointed out incidents of incursion by Bangladesh and China.
On the controversial use of pellet guns by the police, Mr Shinde said the police is allowed to shoot pellets on body parts below the waist but during emergency situations, the police tends to lose control. “During the UPA rule, we tried used rubber bullets instead of pellets but the experiment failed,” he said.
He also attacked the government for not being able to stop attacks on Dalits across the nation.
