New Delhi: “Don’t communalize martyrs,” was Northern Command chief General Devraj Anbu’s answer on February 14, when asked to comment on politician Asaduddin Owaisi pointing out a day earlier that five of the seven people killed in the recent Kashmir terror attack were Muslims.
“We don’t communalize martyrs, those making statements don’t know the Army well,” said Anbu.
His comment was in answer to a question about AIMIM chief Owaisi’s comments from on February 13.
Owaisi on February 13 pointed out that those who question Indian Muslims’ loyalty are way off base. As an example, he brought up the fact that most of the seven people who were killed in an attack on an Army camp in Jammu on Saturday were Muslim.
“Those who call Indian Muslims Pakistani should learn something from this. We (Muslims) are sacrificing our lives (for the country,” said Owaisi, according to ANI news agency.
Four of the six Army men killed in the attack were identified as Kashmiris. They are Mohammad Ashraf Mir, Habibullah Qureshi, Manzoor Ahmed Deva and Mohammad Iqbal Sheikh. one civilian Ghulam Mohiuddin Sheikh, the father of one of the slain Army men, was also among the total seven people killed.
In the meanwhile, thousands of people on February 13 defied terror threats and turned up to pay their respects at the funeral for the four Kashmiri soldiers , who were killed in the daring Saturday attack by Jaish-e-Mohammad operatives at the Army camp in Sunjuwan in Jammu.
A huge crowd gathered at Reshipora village of south Kashmir’s Tral region, where the bodies of Iqbal Sheikh and his father Mohiuddin Sheikh were brought for the funeral. “They never hurt anyone,” said one of the neighbors about the father-son duo.
Similar scenes were witnessed at Kewa village in Anantnag district, where the body of Manzoor Ahmad Deva, draped in the Tricolor, was brought for the last rite. And in north Kashmir, thousands participated in the last rites of Mohammad Ashraf Mir, whose body reached his village Lolab.
Separately in the east of the country, in Bihar, thousands also showed up to pay tribute to CRPF jawan Mujahid Khan in Arrah. He lost his life in an encounter with terrorists in Karan Nagar in Srinagar on February 13.
India Tribune, as an English weekly newspaper, was launched in 1977 in Chicago by its publisher Prashant Shah with a lofty ideal to serve the Asian Indian community in the USA. Over the years, it has grown with all vigor, and now it is being published in three editions – Chicago, New York and Atlanta. India Tribune, a journal of its kind for the family in the USA, has been a household name for many Indians for over three decades with each issue commanding a readership of over 125,000.
