Over two dozen shanties of Rohingya gutted in midnight blaze in Jammu

JAMMU: Around two dozen huts belonging to the Rohingya refugees were gutted in a massive midnight fire in Maratha Mohalla in Jammu, officials said.

Quoting official sources, news agency reported that the fire raged last midnight for more than two hours and when the flames doused off by the wee hours of Monday, it had already destroyed all the shelters of the Rohingya.

The number of damaged shanties is believed to be 25 with officials saying the tally could be even more.

The fire, the cause of which is not known, comes on the heels of the Supreme Court recently reserving its verdict on a plea against the deportation of the Muslim Rohingya to Myanmar where they, according to their lawyer advocate Prashant Bhushan, can be “killed or subjected to torture.”

SSP Jammu Chandan Kohli said the fire broke out at 0100 hours and lasted till 0315 hours adding that three fire tenders were pressed into service to douse it.

Kohli further informed that no injury or loss of life has been reported in the blaze.