NC legislator calls Burhan Wani a martyr

 A legislator of National Conference (NC) in Kashmir has sparked a fresh controversy in Kashmir by calling the slain Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani a "martyr".

He also said Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti was working on directions from the RSS.

"Since the martyrdom of Burhan Wani, over 250 youth have been martyred. Properties have been damaged, but Mehboobaji hasn't spoken on this," MLA Abdul Majeed Larmi, who represents the Homi Shali Bugh Assembly constiteuncy of Anantnag district in south Kashmir, told reporters.

He  said Mehbooba was working on directions from Nagpur - referring to the RSS headquarters - "to save her chair".

"Our sisters were martyred. And Mehboobaji, despite being a woman, didn't even talk about that. She should talk," Larmi said.

He is not the first lawmaker in Kashmir to call  Wani a martyr. In August last year, the ruling PDP's legislator Mushtaq Ahmad Shah had said Wani was "not a terrorist".

"He (Wani) was not a terrorist. People loved him because he was a great and pious character. I am from Tral and I know how much people loved and respected him. Their mourning is justified. His death has given a new lease of life to the separatist ideology," Shah, the PDP legislator from Wani's hometown Tral, had said.

In January, another NC lawmaker, Showkat Hussain Ganie, on the floor of Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Council had said Wani was a "freedom fighter" who died a "martyr".

In September, the then Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif sought to glorify Wani by calling him a "freedom fighter" during his speech at the UN General Assembly.

New Delhi was prompt to react strongly to his comment, accusing the neighbouring country of sponsoring terrorism on Indian soil.

However, the BJP-led central government has not taken the same line when it comes to Kashmiri politicians who glorify militants to gain votes.

The BJP  has been running an alliance government with the regional PDP for almost three years in the only Muslim majority state  in the country.