3 Migrant Labourers Shot At By Militants In Jammu And Kashmir's Shopian

“Terrorists fired upon three outside labourers in Shopian. Injured persons are Anmol Kumar, Pintu Kumar Thakur and Heralal Yadav, all residents of district Supaul, Bihar, being shifted to hospital,” Jammu and Kashmir police said, adding that?they have launched a cordon and search operation.

Former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah condemned the attack calling it very unfortunate. “I unreservedly condemn this attack and send my best wishes to the injured,” he said.

The BJP called it a terrorist attack on unarmed non-local labourers. “This reflects the frustration, inhumanity and cheapness of terrorists involved in the gruesome attack on three non-local labourers who had gone to buy grocery items. We urge police to track those involved in the gruesome act and punish them sternly,” the BJP spokesman Altaf Thakur said.

There is a pattern to these attacks after the abrogation of Article on August 5, 2019.

On October 29, 2019, in Katrasoo village of Kulgam district, five daily wage labourers were killed while working in orchards and paddy fields. The victims were identified as Sheikh Kamrudin, Sheikh Mohammad Rafiq, Sheikh Muzaffar, Rafiq Sheikh, and Zahoor Sheikh, all from Murshidabad district in West Bengal. This triggered the early migration of migrant workers.

Earlier in 2020, a series of targeted killings of migrant workers took place. According to the police, two non-local labourers were killed in Sopore in 2020 in a grenade attack. Both were from Bihar.

In November 2021, a large-scale migration of labourers occurred in South Kashmir after militants shot dead two non-local labourers and wounded another in the Wanpoh area of South Kashmir.