Amritsar, Aug 27 (PTI) The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Friday demanded that Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu's former adviser Malvinder Singh Mali be booked for sedition and treason over his controversial comments on Kashmir.

Senior SAD leader Bikram Singh Majithia said Mali's comments "are an insult to our jawans who are being martyred every day along the border with Pakistan".

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This comes hours after Mali quit as adviser to Sidhu.

In a statement, Majithia said Mali quitting as adviser to Sidhu isn't enough and there is a need to set an example to send out a message that no one will be allowed to play with the country's integrity or jeopardise its sovereignty.

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"Mali should be booked on sedition and treason charges by the government," he said.

In a recent social media post, Mali had waded into the issue of revocation of Article 370 of the Constitution which gave special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.

He had reportedly said if Kashmir was a part of India, then what was the need to have Articles 370 and 35A. He had also said, "Kashmir is a country of Kashmiri people."

In a statement posted on his Facebook page earlier on Friday, Mali said, "I humbly submit that I withdraw my consent given for tendering suggestions to Navjot Singh Sidhu."

In another Facebook post, he claimed that the question of his resignation does not arise as he never accepted the post.

"Neither accepted any post nor resigned from any post," Mali said in the post in Punjabi.

On Sidhu's meeting with traders and industrialists on Thursday, Majithia said, "Where were these people during the last four-and-a-half years? Why did they not meet industrialists and traders earlier?"

The SAD leader also asked Sidhu to share one achievement he made as Punjab minister or as an MP prior to that.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)