Killing 8 workers, militants cast a shadow over yatra

Casting a cloud of fear over the annual Amarnath yatra that began just two days ago, militants today killed eight labourers of a brick kiln here.

Casting a cloud of fear over the annual Amarnath yatra that began just two days ago, militants today killed eight labourers of a brick kiln here.

Five among the dead were Nepalis and three Biharis. They had been abducted early in the morning from the kiln in Shopian.

“Militants targeted them (labourers) as they were soft targets,” Deputy Inspector General of Police, South Kashmir, H K Lohia told The Indian Express.

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He, however, refused to link the attack to the ongoing Amarnath yatra. “We are investigating the matter and will hopefully soon nab the killers,” he said.

The labourers, as the small blood splattered stretch of the road indicated, had been lined up before being fired on at a close range. There were also some chappals and plastic bags lying around.

Badroo, the nearest settlement is about 2 kms away from here.

Neelofar Bano, whose house is the nearest to the site of the incident was the first to reach the spot. “I was cooking at my home, when I heard shots. Then a scooter-borne man told me that some people had been killed nearby,” Neelofar said. “I rushed to the spot with a woman from my neighbourhood. It was a scary scene. Some blood soaked bodies were motionless while others were still writhing in pain and asking for water.”

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Soon, Neelofar said, the other villagers came to the spot and removed the dead and injured to the nearby dispensary at village Yaripora, some three kms away.

She said two of the labourers died at a dispensary.

The other injured were later rushed to the hospitals in Anantnag and Srinagar, the villagers said.

Confirming the reports about the abduction of the labourers before they were fired at, Haji Abdur Rehman Nengroo, a resident of Badroo, said: “I saw some people coming through the hills in the early afternoon, but didn’t pay much attention. But soon after I heard three bursts of fire coming from a distance. And then I heard that people had been killed.”

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The spot, Nengroo said, is 16 kilometres away from the National Highway, where several hundred Yatri buses pass daily.

Besides putting the yatra under a cloud, the attack has also broken a long holding calm calm in South Kashmir, bringing it at par with Srinagar, which over the past two months has witnessed an upward spiral of violence.

“I don’t know what they (militants) will get by killing the innocent villagers,” DIG Lohia said. “However, we will not take this attack lying down.”