Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of State

Dinesh Manhotra

Tribune News Service

Jammu, October 29

Amid raging anger after recovery of badly mutilated body of an Army jawan in the Machil sector of Kupwara district of north Kashmir, Union Minister of State (MoS) in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) Jitendra Singh today hoped that the External Affairs and Defence ministries would take cognisance of the barbaric act.“I am not qualified to give a statement on the behalf of the ministries concerned, but I am sure that the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and Defence Ministry would take cognisance of this heinous crime,” Jitendra Singh said after visiting border areas of Kathua, Samba and Jammu district, adding that “I am not directly concerned with the matter”.Jitendra Singh, who reached Jammu this morning from Delhi, straightway went to the shelling-affected areas of the Jammu region and interacted with soldiers and villagers. He said the Centre would take every step to mitigate miseries of the border people. He lauded border residents for working like soldiers without uniform. “The morale of the border residents is high. They are more concerned about thwarting the designs of the enemy, rather than be concerned about their own safety,” he observed after touring border areas.When his reaction was sought about a “barbaric” incident, in which terrorists, aided by the cover fire by Pakistani Army, on Friday night crossed the Line of Control and killed an Indian Army jawan and mutilated his body in the Machil sector of Kupwara district of Kashmir, Jitendra Singh said, “Nothing can be more heinous than this act of terrorists”.Taking a dig at those who raised bogey of human rights of terrorist and other anti-national elements, Jitendra Singh said that this barbaric incident had exposed those who raked up rights issue on every incident. “Those who lack courage to call Burhan Wani as a terrorist, those who lack courage to condemn mutilation of Army soldier have not right to speak about human rights,” he said.It was high time, Jitendra Singh said, that the nation rose up to call the bluff of the so-called human rights protagonists and the pseudo-intellectuals, who sought to promote their politics at the cost of an Indian Army jawan, but when you ask them a straight question, whether Burhan Wani was a terrorist or not, instead of saying “Yes” or “No” in reply, they invariably come out with long platitudes, philosophies and postulations.“The barbaric killing of the Army jawan has exposed the duplicity of all those who keep raising the bogey of human rights, especially in the Valley, but now they have maintained a criminal silence on mutilation of the body of a soldier. The entire nation is angered with this heinous act,” he added.