Demanding mortal remains of Afzal, Maqbool is vote bank politics: MoS Jitendra Singh

After a PDP MP wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging for the mortal remains of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru and JKLF leader Maqbool Bhat to be handed over to their families, Jitendra Singh, minister of state said that the demand was made with an eye on the upcoming Lok Sabha elections and is "vote-bank" politics.

"These things should not be taken with seriousness. As the elections are approaching, the Kashmir centric parties compete among themselves. They look for opportunities to influence certain vote bank in certain constituencies," said Jitendra Singh.

"But this time they are not going to succeed with their nefarious tactics as most of the voters are young voters and some of them are even born in the year 2000 and after. They very well understand such kind of politics and are never going to vote such people," said Singh.

PDP Rajya Sabha MP Mir Mohammad Fayaz, on Monday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging that the mortal remains of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru and JKLF leader Maqbool Bhat, who were hanged in Delhi's Tihar jail separately, be handed over to their families, so that the "sense of alienation" of Kashmiri's could be "brought down by several notches".

He wrote that granting the request would be "like a balm on old wounds that are unhealed even after so many years".