Jammu-Kashmir Assembly Speaker Kavinder Gupta stirred a hornet’s nest on Saturday, 10 February, by alleging that Rohingyas had a hand in the terror attack on an army camp in Sunjuwan.

Speaking in the J-K Assembly, Gupta said that the attack took place “because of the presence of the Rohingya refugees in the area”.

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His comment sparked a row in the assembly with many leaders storming into the well of the assembly demanding an apology from the Speaker for targeting a particular community. The Speaker later expunged his remark.

But some BJP leaders in the state reiterated the allegation that the illegal immigrants, who came from Myanmar following persecution, might have had a hand in the attack.

MLC Vikram Randhawa demanded an investigation into the “illegal” settlements of Rohingyas in Jammu.

Meanwhile, BJP leader Ravinder Raina accused Pakistan of creating trouble in the state.

“The cowards [Pakistani terrorists] again attacked a camp but our brave jawans will neutralise the terrorists,” he said.

The camp houses a brigade of the Indian Army. Reports say that there are Rohingya settlements around the camp.

Around 4-5 heavily armed terrorists attacked Sunjuwan Military Station of the Indian Army located along National Highway 44 in Jammu from the rear side. They hurled grenades and used heavy volume of automatic gunfire, which left seven army personnel and the daughter of an armyman injured. Two of the injured army personnel succumbed to their injuries.

Para commandos have been flown in from Udhampur to neutralise the terrorists who are still holed up inside the camp.

There were intelligence inputs that Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) militants were planning to carry out an attack around the 5th death anniversary of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, who was hanged on 9 February 2013 in Tihar Jail, informed sources in the police said.

Militants had attacked the same camp in 2006. Twelve soldiers were killed and seven others were injured then before the two ‘fidayeen’ (suicide) terrorists were neutralised.

(With inputs from agencies.)