Ghulam Nabi Azad lauds father of suspected terrorist for not accepting son's body

New Delhi: Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad today saluted the father of suspected ISIS terrorist Saifullah for not accepting his son's body and branding him as a "traitor". 

Saifullah was killed in an encounter with Uttar Pradesh Police yesterday.
Azad described as "courageous" the stand of Sartaj, Saifullah's father, of not accepting his slain son's body saying a traitor cannot be related to him.

"A father has rejected a son for the sake of the nation...My salute. This shows there is no dearth of nationalist Muslims in India," the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha told reporters.

Sartaj had yesterday told journalists, "A traitor cannot be my son, straight and simple...We are Indian citizens. I was born here, my ancestors were born here."

Saifullah was killed in Lucknow yesterday in an exchange of fire with the state police after a 12-hour stand-off.

He was suspected to be linked with the blast in the Bhopal-Ujjain train, police said.