Srinagar: As Madan Lal, 55, was stepping out of the camper van on Sunday evening, a string of gunshots rang in the air, killing a coworker who was coming out of the workers’ mess where Lal was headed.
His gaze then turned to two gunmen, their combat fatigues draped under thin blankets, who pointed their guns in his direction and fired more shots.
“I instantly realised that it was a terror attack,” recalled Lal, a resident of Jammu’s Kathua district, and one of the five eyewitnesses who survived the bloodbath that took place on Sunday evening (October 20) in central Kashmir’s Ganderbal district.
A Kashmiri doctor and six other civilians were killed in the attack that targeted the base camp of Apco Infra Ltd, a major Lucknow-based real estate group that has worked on key projects in the Union Territory.
The company is currently working on the 6.5 km long twin-tube Z-Morh tunnel in Gagangir village of Ganderbal near Sonamarg health resort. The strategic tunnel will bring the Srinagar-Leh highway, which remains closed in winter for two to four months, a step closer towards becoming an all-weather road, connecting the Kashmir valley with the Ladakh region bordering China.
However, the deadly attack, which comes days after chief minister Omar Abdullah-led coalition government was sworn into office, has put the security agencies in Jammu and Kashmir in a dock with the National Investigation Agency (NIA) joining the probe on Monday.
Madan Lal, who worked as an electrician at the tunnel project, had a miraculous escape in the terror attack. Photo: Jehangir Ali
The importance of the attack – which targeted a major infrastructure project aimed at reducing the time needed to mobilise troops from Kashmir valley to Ladakh in the event of a conflagration with China – is not lost on security agencies.
The tunnel, which has been under construction for several years, was set to be inaugurated by either Prime Minister Narendra Modi or Union Transport minister Nitin Gadkari by the end of this month, according to a source. “The inauguration is now likely to be put off for some time,” the source added.
Lal, who worked at the tunnel as an electrician, is among the five injured workers who are recuperating at Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Science (SKIMS) in Srinagar. The institute was put under heavy security cover on Monday.
Four among the injured are the only patients at one of the ‘surgical emergency’ wards while the fifth victim, a resident of Kashmir, remains critical and under observation at the hospital’s intensive care unit.
A doctor examining the MRI scan of one of the injured patients admitted at Srinagar’s SKIMS. Photo: Jehangir Ali
A SKIMS doctor, who spoke with The Wire on the condition of anonymity, said that three workers have suffered firearm injuries while the fourth, Jagtar Singh, a resident of Kathua in Jammu, fractured his right leg in an attempt to escape the two gunmen who surfaced at the Apco Infra base camp on Sunday between 7-8 pm.
Singh, who worked with G4S Global, a security solutions company, was posted as a security guard at the Apco camp. “He saw one of the gunmen going on a rampage and took a plunge into a gorge adjoining the camp due to which his right leg has suffered multiple injuries,” the doctor said, adding that Singh’s family was informed of his condition on Monday morning and they are on the way to Srinagar.
Adjacent to Singh’s bed in the SKIMS ward is Indel Yadav, 40, a resident of Bihar’s Khagaria district. Yadav’s lower jaw and the rest of his skull, except his face, has been wrapped in swabs of cotton and bandage which have seemingly provided little relief from the pain of a skull fractured by a bullet.
Recalling their ordeal, Bhim Kumar, his nephew, said that after finishing their evening meal on Sunday, they were preparing to retire for the day in a large tin container which served as their night shelter when gunshots rang in the air and a bullet hit his uncle’s face after tearing through the container’s metal walls.
A hospital attendant showing a photo of the charred remains of a vehicle reportedly targeted with a grenade. Photo: Jehangir Ali.
“The firing went on for about 10 minutes,” recalled Kumar, also a resident of Bihar, “We could hear the screams outside. Seeing him bleed profusely, I grabbed a cloth and pressed it on the wound to prevent blood loss. Some 15 minutes later, we hauled him into a vehicle after which he was taken to hospital.”
Asked whether the Yadav’s family was informed about his condition, Kumar replied, “I had to tell them [about the attack] but we are poor people. Whatever we earn here is barely sufficient to make our ends meet. How can they afford to come here?”
In another corners of the surgical emergency ward sit the anguished parents of a Kashmiri youngster who was hit by a bullet in the lower back when the two gunmen went on a rampage.
Although the doctor quoted above said that his vital organs are safe, the bullet’s exit wound has created a gaping hole in his lower abdomen. The accompanying loss of blood and the relentless pain has turned him pale, and restless.
“I got a phone call that he was among the injured. But I am grateful to Allah that he has survived,” said the youngster’s father, Mushtaq Ahmad, a resident of Preng village in Ganderbal district, adding that his son worked at a supply store at the base camp.
Narrating the incident to The Wire from his hospital bed, electrician Lal, who has a son and a daughter, said that one of his coworkers, who was hit by a bullet in the abdomen on Sunday evening, collapsed on top of him as he tried to crawl away to safety.
“I later found out that he has died,” Lal said. Even though the middle-aged worker from Kathua succeeded in evading the fate of the seven dead workers, a bullet bore through his right hand. “I don’t know if I will be able to work again,” Lal said with moist eyes.
