Mumbai: NCP on Thursday said it would have been better had Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan attended the funeral of Naik Kundalik Mane, who was among five soldiers killed along the LoC.
Mane`s remains were today consigned to flames with full military honours at his native village Pimpalgaon in Kolhapur district of western Maharashtra.
"It would have been better had the Chief Minister attended the soldier`s funeral," state NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said, responding to a media query here.
The NCP leader also targeted BJP leader Gopinath Munde over his statement that the five Indian soldiers died in a "terrorist" attack, demanding apology from him.
Munde, deputy leader of BJP in Lok Sabha, made the remark after attending Mane`s final rites. Malik said that Munde`s statement can dilute India`s position during the bilateral talks with Pakistan.
"When his party leadership objected to the statement by defence minister A K Antony in Parliament, Munde was exactly contradicting them," he said.
Meanwhile, Munde later issued a clarification, saying he had said `Pakistan army and terrorists` had killed many Indian soldiers in the past few months, and had not blamed terrorists for the latest incident. "I request all political parties to not politicise my statement," he said.
PTI
