At least seven dead in attack on camp housing Kashmir tunnel workers

Six operation workers and a doc were killed and 5 radical were wounded successful a suspected militant onslaught successful the restive Himalayan territory of Kashmir successful India connected Sunday evening.

Gunmen opened occurrence indiscriminately connected a campy lodging workers progressive successful a passageway task successful Ganderbal territory successful the latest onslaught connected workers from extracurricular Kashmir, wherever an armed rebellion against Indian rule has raged since 1989.

The attackers besides burned 2 vehicles of the institution constructing the Z Morh passageway astatine Gagangeer.

The passageway is simply a strategical plus arsenic it connects determination superior Srinagar to Ladakh, wherever the Indian subject is locked successful borderline disputes with Pakistan and China.

Police and subject person cordoned disconnected the Gagangeer country and launched a hunt for the attackers.

Kashmir’s constabulary main Vidhi Kumar Birdi said the victims included “non-local and section persons”.

The onslaught occurred little than a week aft Kashmir got its archetypal elected authorities successful a decade.

Kashmir, Ladakh and the neighbouring portion of Jammu formed India’s northernmost authorities until 2019, erstwhile Narendra Modi’s federal authorities downgraded it into a brace of territories – Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh – ruled straight by Delhi. It besides removed from India’s constitution provisions that gave the majority-Muslim portion a grade of autonomy, fulfilling a longstanding purpose of the ruling party’s Hindu nationalist agenda.

These and different ineligible changes mean that Kashmir’s newly-elected section authorities has vastly reduced powers than it did anterior to 2019.

This was the 2nd onslaught connected workers from extracurricular Kashmir since the caller authorities took over. Police recovered a non-local worker’s body, riddled with slug wounds, from a maize tract successful confederate Shopian territory connected Friday. Authorities claimed helium was killed by militants.

Omar Abdullah, the caller main minister, called Sunday’s a “dastardly and cowardly onslaught connected non-local labourers”. “These radical were moving connected a cardinal infrastructure task successful the area,” helium said.

“I powerfully condemn this onslaught connected unarmed guiltless radical and nonstop my condolences to their loved ones.”

Manoj Sinha, the lieutenant politician who administers the territory for New Delhi, assured that “those down this despicable enactment volition not spell unpunished”.

“Full state has been fixed to police, service and information forces” to woody with the perpetrators, helium said.

The national roadworthy transport and highways curate besides condemned “the horrific panic onslaught connected guiltless labourers” who helium said were “engaged successful a captious infrastructure project”.

The household of the doc killed successful Sunday’s onslaught was near devastated. “It felt similar doomsday erstwhile we heard astir his death. There is mourning successful the full village, each oculus is moist today,” Dr Shahnawaz Qadir Dar’s cousin, identified by lone his archetypal sanction Tariq, was quoted arsenic saying by the Greater Kashmir newspaper.

Dar was from Nadigam colony successful the cardinal territory of Budgam.

Additional reporting by agencies