Two Junior Commissioned Officers (JCOs) were killed and six others injured as a group of militants stormed the Sunjwan Army camp in Jammu city in the early hours today, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Abdul Rehman Veeri said.
The minister informed the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly that Subedar Maganlal and Subedar Mohammed Ashraf were killed in the attack.
While the minister did not specify the group affiliation of the militants who launched the attack, officials said Jaish-e-Mohammed militants were behind the terror strike.
Ruckus broke out after Speaker of the Assembly Kavinder Gupta pointed towards Rohingyas for facilitating the attack. The comment created chaos with the opposition saying the state government and the central government should be blamed for security lapses, and not any particular community.
National Conference leader Ali Mohammed Sagar said they had been asking the government to initiate dialogue to resolve the issue politically. National Conference patron Farooq Abdullah had also stated that dialogue was the solution to resolve the Kashmir issue, he added.
The ruling BJP legislators, on the other hand, raised anti Pakistan slogans and alleged Pakistan was directly involved in the attack. They said Pakistan was pushing the militants towards Jammu as in Kashmir Valley militants have been neutralised by the Army and security forces are present in large numbers.
At around 4.55 a.m today, a group of four to five militants entered the premises of JCOs family quarters inside the camp and started firing. The camp falls under the first Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry in 36 Brigade.
DGP S P Vaid said the terrorists entered from the rear side of Sunjwan Army camp where family quarters are located.
Soon after the attack, reinforcements of the Army’s special forces and SOG rushed to the spot and cordoned off the whole area amid a fierce gunfight, security official said.
Schools in the entire area around the camp have been closed by authorities as a precautionary measure.
Intelligence inputs had warned of an attack on the Army or security establishment by Jaish-e-Mohammed in view of the death anniversary of Afzal Guru who was hanged on February 9, 2013.
(Inputs from PTI)
