NEW DELHI: Unidentified men in India-occupied Kashmir raked a construction site work camp with bullets on Sunday night, killing seven people and wounding several others.

The attackers targeted workers from outside occupied Kashmir, who were reported to be building a road tunnel connecting the region with Ladakh, bordering China.

The assailants fired automatic weapons at the camp from forested hills around when the workers were dining, an Indian newspaper reported.

A doctor was among the dead. The attack is one of the worst this year targeting civilians.

The occupied state’s chief minister, Omar Abdullah, called the attack “dastardly and cowardly”, while India’s Interior Minister Amit Shah vowed those responsible would face the “harshest” response.

“Those involved in this heinous act will not be spared, and will face the harshest response from our security forces,” Amit Shah said.

India’s paramilitary forces scoured the mountain terrain on Monday trying to track down the attackers.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government cancelled occupied Kashmir’s limited autonomy in 2019, accompanied by mass arrests and a months-long communications blackout.

Critics accuse the Modi government of suppressing political freedoms in the held state.

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2024