Going for last rites wouldn`t have made the martyr alive again: Bihar minister

This comes a day after the family of the CRPF jawan, who died fighting militants in Jammu and Kashmir, turned down a cheque of Rs 5 lakh.

Amid the controversy over no minister from Nitish Kumar-led Bihar government attending the last rites of slain CRPF jawan Mujahid Khan, one of his ministers has justified the absence of ministers. Speaking to news agency ANI, Bihar minister Vinod Singh asked if his attending the last rites of the jawan would have made the martyr alive again.

“Kal hi jaake kya fayda hota? Maine dil se unko salute kiya hai, aur kal hi jaake kya hum unko zinda kar dete? (What would have been the benefit of our going there yesterday? I have saluted him from my heart. Would the martyr have been alive again had we gone there?)” said the minister.

When asked about the controversy, the agitated minister said, “Don’t you know how far Katihar is from Piro? I covered a distance of 400 km to be here today and I am going to meet the bereaved family of the martyr.”

This comes a day after the family of the CRPF jawan, who died fighting militants in Jammu and Kashmir on Monday, turned down a cheque of Rs 5 lakh from the Bihar government, saying it was "demeaning" as Army personnel killed in such incidents get Rs 11 lakh.

The cheque was given to Khan's family in Bhojpur district's Piro Tehsil where the slain CRPF constable's body was brought on Wednesday morning and the funeral held with full police honours.

All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen Party (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi had attacked the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar for not visiting the family of the martyr. "Mujahid Khan - a constable of CRPF, a resident of Bihar, Piro district Ara - not a single minister of Nitish Kumar visited the deceased family," Lok Sabha MP from Hyderabad had tweeted.

Khan was killed in a gunbattle with militants who had attacked the camp of the CRPF's 23rd Battalion at Karan Nagar in Srinagar.