Srinagar: A young migrant worker from Uttar Pradesh was reportedly shot and injured in a suspected militant attack in the Awantipora police district of south Kashmir on Thursday (October 24).
A senior police officer said that the victim, identified as Shubham Kumar, a resident of Bijnore district in Uttar Pradesh, was injured in Batgund village of Tral town in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district on Thursday morning.
Reports said that the attackers, whose number and affiliation has not been ascertained so far, fled from the area after the shooting.
The officer said that Kumar was taken to a nearby hospital by his fellow workers with the help of locals and security personnel. “He had suffered injury in his hand but his condition is stable,” the officer said, adding that the cause of the injury has not been ascertained yet.
A purported photo of the victim, which went viral on social media on Thursday, showed the youngster posing with his freshly bandaged right arm from a hospital bed. Splotches of blood are visible on his grey tee which has off-white stripes. An IV line is connected to his left arm but Kumar seems to be in good spirits.
According to reports, the cartridge of the bullet reportedly fired at the victim by unknown gunmen was not recovered from the site of the incident with the police yet to confirm whether it was a militant attack.
Senior police and army officials have arrived at the site of the attack and searches are underway in the area, reports said.
No militant outfit has claimed responsibility for the attack, the third such incident this month which is likely to add to the fears of thousands of migrant workers who form an important part of Kashmir’s construction and agriculture sectors.
The incident took place three days after a Kashmiri doctor and six more workers were killed in a militant attack when two unidentified gunmen surfaced inside the base camp of a private infrastructure development company in central Kashmir’s Ganderbal district on October 20.
Also read: J&K: Kashmiri Doctor Among 7 Infra Company Employees Killed in Ganderbal Attack
According to witnesses, the gunmen went on a rampage for about 10 minutes at the base camp, firing indiscriminately at whosoever came in their sight and leaving a trail of death and destruction which has halted worked on the strategic Z-Morh tunnel on Srinagar-Leh highway which was expected to be thrown open this month.
The attack in Shopian is the third militant attack on migrant workers in Kashmir after Omar Abdullah was sworn in as the first chief minister of the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir after his party, National Conference, emerged as the single largest in the recently concluded assembly elections with 42 seats in the House of 90 members.
On October 18, 30-year-old Ashok Chauhan, a migrant worker from Bihar was abducted from Malhura area of Shopian in south Kashmir, Later, the bullet-riddled body of Chauhan was recovered near Rambiara river, prompting the police to launch a probe into his killing.
Abdullah, who was in the national capital on Wednesday where he met the Union home minister Amit Shah and discussed the issue of the restoration of Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood, is leading a shaky coalition government with the support of Congress and others.
The string of attacks on migrant workers within a week after Abdullah’s swearing-in ceremony is likely to bring his government under intense spotlight, even though the law and order in Jammu and Kashmir and security are under the control of the Bhartiya Janta Party-led Union government.
The back-to-back attacks in Kashmir this month are reminiscent of a spate of targeted killings of migrant workers and the minority Kashmiri Hindus in the autumn of 2021 which had prompted many Kashmiri Pandits and workers to flee the Valley.
