SRINAGAR, Oct 21 (Reuters) – At least six migrant workers and a doctor were shot dead in India’s Kashmir region on Sunday night when militants opened fire near a tunnel construction site, officials said, days after a new government was formed in the territory.
An opposition alliance took power in the region this month after winning the first polls in a decade, and the first since its special status was revoked and it was split into two federally administered territories – Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.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 the construction of tunnels meant to provide all-weather connectivity to the militarily strategic Ladakh region, which shares a border 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,” said a senior police officer who did not want to be named.
Six workers and a doctor working for the company were killed and five other people were injured in the attack, he said.
The Resistance Front (TRF), which Indian authorities believe is an offshoot of Pakistani Islamist militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement circulating on social media.
This story was originally published in reuters.com. Read the full story here.
