Congress leader Charanjit Singh Channi on Sunday called the Poonch terror attack in which an IAF soldier was killed and four were injured, a “stunt” meant to make the BJP win the Lok Sabha elections. The remark by the former Punjab Chief Minister and Congress candidate Jalandhar parliamentary constituency triggered a row with the BJP leader Manjinder Singh Sirsa calling his statement appalling and disrespectful towards soldiers.

Replying to a question on the attack on the Indian Air Force's convoy in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch, Channi said, “‘Yeh stuntbaazi ho rahi hai, hamle nahi ho rahe' (These are all stunts, not attacks)." “Whenever elections are near, such stunts are performed to make the BJP win. There is no truth in it," he said while replying to the question in Jalandhar.

Channi is the Congress candidate from the Jalandhar reserve parliamentary constituency.

"The BJP knows how to play with people's lives and bodies," he further said.

One soldier was killed and four were injured as terrorists ambushed an Indian Air Force (IAF) convoy in Poonch district on Saturday, three weeks ahead of polling in Anantnag-Rajouri Lok Sabha constituency.

BJP leader Sirsa said, "I condemn Charanjit Singh Channi's statement of calling the martyrdom of an IAF personnel in Kashmir, "stuntbaazi".” “Congress is saying that he was martyred because of elections. This mentality is not just appalling but disrespectful to those who serve our nation,” he said.

“Pakistan and Rahul Gandhi continue to support each other while Congress is belittling the sacrifice of our Jawans,” Sirsa said in a post on X.

Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Telegraph Online staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.