Minutes ahead of Thursday's proceedings in Jammu and Kashmir Assembly, BJP legislators went toward an independent MLA Engineer Rashid, who was on his seat, abusing, thrashing him with all force for organizing a beef party on Wednesday evening.

The leader of the opposition, Omar Abdullah, described the assault on Rashid as 'Dadri style' saying had the opposition not intervened, the BJP members would have killed Rashid.

Ahead of question hour, Rashid was seated, when the BJP MLAs Rajiv Sharma, Gagan Bhagat and Ravinder Raina rushed towards him and started beating him. More BJP members joined them pouncing on Rashid.

A senior member Hakeem Muhammad Yaseen of Peoples Democratic Forum tried to intervene, but failed to do anything. Sensing trouble, he shouted and with it National Conference and Congress legislators rushed to rescue Rashid. They pushed BJP legislators aside and escorted Rashid towards their side in the House. In the melee Rashid also pushed a BJP member.

The commotion continued for around 15 minutes.

Chief Minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed condemned the attack on Rashid and asked deputy chief minister Dr. Nirmal Singh, who is from BJP, to apologize over the attack. Singh reluctantly apologized. The speaker Kavinder Gupta didn't speak about it.

Abdullah, however, made speech in the House accusing the BJP of planning the attack to murder Rashid inside the House.

"Whatever you did today, you have weakened your position. This was in the same manner when fingers were raised on you in Dadri," Abdullah said ignoring objections of the BJP members over his utterances.

He rejected intervention from the speaker Kavinder Gupta and said the opposition would continue to speak up. "Had our members not stood up to rescue him (Rashid), you would have killed him," Abdullah said. Abdullah described the attack as shocking and said an attempt to kill a member in the House has not happened anywhere. He said the members come to the House not to kill each other but to talk. Abdullah said if the BJP members had objections and reservations over any act of MLA Engineer Rashid, they should have raised the issue in the House instead of launching murderous assault on him.

"We respect everyone's sentiment. We don't want to hurt your sentiments. But we too have sentiments. It shouldn't happen that while caring about your sentiments, our sentiments are forgotten," Abdullah said giving example of liquor. He said the liquor was prohibited in his religion but it doesn't mean he would start beating in the Assembly any person who drinks. "Pork is prohibited in Islam, but that does that mean I should thrash everybody in the Assembly who eats pork," Abdullah said.

After he escaped the attack by BJP members, MLA Rashid told reporters outside the Assembly he would have been killed had opposition members not intervened. He said the BJP members dragged him by arms and legs on the floor and stood on chest and thrashed him. "Again they have proven Muhammad Ali Jinnah and his two nation theory right. Why Jinnah made Pakistan you have proven him right today," Rashid said.

Rashid also targeted Sajad Gani Lone, who is presently Minister for Animal Husbandry, and said why he doesn't come to the House to defend the RSS and BJP over the issue. "Sajad Lone has entered into alliance with the BJP. He should come to defend the RSS," Rashid said sarcastically. Lone is reportedly in Europe and he has not attended on going-session of the Assembly.

Earlier Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, while urging members to maintain the decorum and high standards of proprietary in the House, condemned the assault. He said the Assembly is a sacred forum where laws are made and matters of public importance are raised and deliberated upon. "What happened today is highly unfortunate. The sanctity of the House should be maintained and it should not be reduced to a wrestling ring where blows are exchanged," he said, while urging lawmakers to respect and protect the dignity of the House.

Meanwhile, Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, Syed Basharat Bukhari on Thursday said nobody has a right to interfere in religious affairs of others which has been guaranteed and protected under the Constitution. "I am a Muslim and do practice what is allowed under Sharia including having beef, and nobody can stop me from doing so", the Minister said in the Legislative Council.