Kashmir tensions rise after migrant workers killed
TWO labourers were killed by gunmen in Indian Kashmir last Sunday (17), police said, the latest victims of a fresh outbreak of violence in the region.
The two labourers, who were Hindus from Bihar state, were shot in the southern Wanpoh area of Kashmir valley. A third was critically injured, police said.
The killings came a day after a street vendor and a labourer, also from Bihar, were killed in separate shootings. One was Muslim, the other was Hindu. No group has immediately claimed responsibility for the four deaths, which have sent shockwaves through minority communities in the region.
The police chief on the Indian side of the region said last Sunday that vulnerable Indian migrant workers in Kashmir will be moved to army and police camps for protection.
Vijay Kumar said, “I have directed officers to shift the vulnerable urgently.”
It was not immediately clear how many of the tens of thousands of Indians from other states who are working in Kashmir would be affected, or if they would be confined in the camps or if the directive was compulsory.
Tensions have risen in Kashmir since August 2019 when prime minister Narendra Modi’s government scrapped the region’s semi-autonomy and brought it under New Delhi’s direct rule.
This was accompanied by a huge security operation and communications blackout with tens of thousands of soldiers joining the estimated half a million on the ground.
Modi said the change was to end decades of violence and bring prosperity to Kashmir. But locals said the laws enacted since then favoured Indians from outside the territory.
The latest killings come hard on the heels of a series of street shootings last week that left seven more civilians dead, among them three members of the local Hindu and Sikh communities. Those shootings were claimed by The Resistance Front rebel group. In total, 32 civilians have been shot dead this year so far, a majority of them local Muslims.
Meanwhile deadly clashes between insurgents and government forces have claimed roughly 30 lives - including soldiers and rebels - in the past two weeks.