BJP opposes ex gratia for Burhan’s family

Dinesh Manhotra

Tribune News Service

Jammu, December 14

Already facing criticism for compromising core of its ideology for power, the BJP has landed in an embarrassing position after the coalition government announced compensation for the family of slain militant commander Burhan Wani for the death of his brother Khalid Wani.

Infuriated over the unilateral decision of the PDP, which is heading the coalition, the “embarrassed” BJP leadership said it would not support any compensation for the terrorist’s family.

“No question of allowing the state government to release compensation for the family a militant who was involved in a number of terror acts,” said state BJP president Sat Sharma, adding, “as of now only the name of Burhan Wani’s family has figured in the list issued by the state government but we will force the government to delete it.”

Interestingly, no BJP minister is ready to come on record to oppose the government’s decision but the party leadership has taken the issue seriously.

Highly placed sources said the BJP leadership had made it clear to its ministers that accepting this proposal would prove disastrous to the party in the Jammu region and have ramifications in other parts of the country as well.

The PDP-BJP government has announced compensation for the death of Khalid Wani, who was killed by the Army on April 13, 2015, under mysterious circumstances.

While the Army had claimed Khalid was an overground worker of Hizbul Mujahideen and was killed in an encounter, his family said he was “tortured to death.” According to government norms, the ex gratia entitles a victim’s family to a payment of Rs 4 lakh or employment for a member of the family.

By announcing the compensation, the state government has admitted that Khalid was innocent and was killed bythe forces. “How come government came to the conclusion that Khalid was innocent?”, asked the state BJP president, while warning, “We will vociferously take up this issue in the coming session of the Assembly.”

The BJP state president, quoting the statement of the security forces on the day of encounter, said it had been confirmed that Khalid Wani, who had been operating as an overground worker, had taken three youths, who were later arrested by the police, to meet his brother Burhan Wani for their recruitment to the terrorist organisation. The incident had thus prevented the three youth from being misguided by Khalid into joining the militant ranks.

Bickering in the “uncomfortable” alliance of the two parties, having diametrically opposite ideologies, came to the fore during the Cabinet meeting on Friday when CM Mehbooba Mufti had walked out of the meeting midway on the issue of appointing KPS officers to the posts of DIG and IG.