A National Investigation Agency (NIA) team led by a senior officer is headed to the terror attack site in Gagangir in Jammu and Kashmir’s Ganderbal district, where a doctor and six construction workers were killed when terrorists opened fire at a construction site on Sunday night.
This attack occurred just days after a new government was formed in the territory, marking a significant political shift in the region.
An opposition alliance took power in the region this month after winning its first polls in a decade and the first since the special status of Jammu and Kashmir was revoked and it was split into two federally administered territories—Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.
The victims of Sunday’s attack were involved in constructing tunnels meant to provide all-weather connectivity to the strategically vital Ladakh region, which shares borders with China and Pakistan.
“At least two armed militants barged into the mess of the private construction company and fired at workers who were dining at the time of the attack,” said a senior police officer who did not want to be named.
Six workers and a doctor were killed, with five others injured in the incident. Non-Kashmiri migrant workers employed in orchards, paddy fields, and construction sites in Kashmir have previously been targeted by militant groups aiming to drive them away.
India’s Interior Minister Amit Shah termed the attack a “despicable act of cowardice.” He vowed that “those involved in this heinous act will not be spared and will face the harshest response from our security forces.”
Kashmir is claimed in full but ruled in part by both India and Pakistan, and militants in the portion under India’s control have for decades fought security forces, resulting in the deaths of thousands of people.
In another incident of violence last week, a bullet-riddled body of a laborer from the eastern state of Bihar was recovered from Kashmir’s Shopian region. Additionally, at least nine soldiers were killed in two separate attacks by suspected militants in July, barely a month after Prime Minister Narendra Modi took charge for a third consecutive term.