Two labourers were killed and two injured in a terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir‘s Ganderbal district on Sunday.
The terrorists opened fire on the camp housing labourers of a private company working on construction of a tunnel at Gund area in the district, officials told news agency PTI.
Two labourers died on the spot while two others sustained injuries. Police and army have cordoned off the area to track the attackers.
This is the fifth targeted attack on non-natives in Kashmir this year.
Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah condemned the attack, calling it “a dastardly & cowardly attack on non-local labourers”.
“Very sad news of a dastardly & cowardly attack on non-local labourers at Gagangir in Sonamarg region. These people were working on a key infrastructure project in the area. 2 have been killed & 2-3 more have been injured in this militant attack. I strongly condemn this attack on unarmed innocent people & send my condolences to their loved ones,” Abdullah posted on X.
Earlier, a few days ago, the bullet-riddled body of a 30-year-old migrant labourer named Ashok Chauhan from Bihar’s Banka district was found in a maize field near Rambiara river in south Kashmir’s Shopian district.
Police said Chauhan was abducted and killed by terrorists, marking the first targeted attack on migrant workers in the valley since CM Omar Abdullah’s coalition govt assumed office in J&K on October 16.
A tourist cab driver named Paramjit Singh from Delhi was critically wounded in Shopian on April 8, while Raju Shah, a 35-year-old migrant worker from Bihar, was shot dead by terrorists in Anantnag on April 17. In Feb, two men from Punjab were shot dead in Srinagar.
“Our security forces are determined to hunt down the culprits and bring them to justice. My thoughts are with his family members…,” lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha had posted after Chauhan’s killing.
CM Omar condemned the attack, while J&K BJP chief Ravinder Raina said: “Cowardly Pakistani terrorists killed Ashok Chauhan…The terrorists will be punished.”