BJP leader calls Wani’s killing an accident

'If we had known about it earlier then we would have taken precautions prior to the operation' Nirmal Singh says

In a rare admission, the deputy chief minister of Indian Kashmir on Sunday said that killing Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani was an “accident” though he quickly retracted his remarks.

“It was an accident,” said Nirmal Singh, who is also a senior leader of the ruling coalition partner Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), NDTV reported.

“If we had known about it earlier then we would have taken precautions prior to the operation.”

But hours after the statement, Singh recanted stating that “facts have been misinterpreted.”

“I was asked about the government’s failure on controlling the violence that happened after the operation. I said precautions would have been taken so that violence would not have happened after Wani’s killing,” he said.

His comments came as the Indian Kashmir administration and the BJP remains divided on explaining its position about Wani’s killing.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 1^st, 2016.