Srinagar: Truckers and labourers have been asked to leave Shopian after four militant attacks over the last 15 days on non-locals in south Kashmir left five dead.
According to local residents of Shopian, the police on Sunday asked the truckers to leave and did not allow other truck drivers, approaching the district from the Mughal road, to enter.
The move comes after five non-locals were killed in last 15 days. Two truckers were killed and their apple-laden vehicles set ablaze after suspected militants fired at them on Thursday evening in Chitargam village of Shopian.
This was the fourth such incident this month in which suspected militants attacked non-Kashmiris in the southern region of the Valley.
The police have notified safe spots for truckers coming to Kashmir to ferry apples. “On Thursday, the police came and told us to leave without loading our consignment,” Sukhdev Singh, a driver from Punjab, told News18.
A number of trucks were parked at Batapora Bus Stand, Fruit Mandi Arhama, and in the main Shopian town, but the police came and asked them to leave, a local apple trader told News18.
“This step is being taken keeping in view the security of the truckers. After the recent attacks, there are reports that the militants might make other truckers a target,” a police official said on condition of anonymity.
A top official in the civil administration said this is a security operation and the civil administration is just following it.
Senior officials in the police and civil administration refused to comment.
“I can’t comment on this issue,” said Shopian Deputy Commissioner Yasin Chowdhary.
Shopian Senior Superintendent of Police Sandeep Choudhary said he will answer queries on WhatsApp. However, News18 was unable to reach out to him as internet connection in the Valley has been off since August 5.
Three trucks passing through Chitragam village on Thursday were fired upon indiscriminately by the gunmen, leaving the people on board two of them injured. Two among them, police officials told News18, succumbed to the injuries at the spot while another one was shifted to the Srinagar-based SMHS Hospital in a critical condition.
After the attack, the gunmen set ablaze the fruit-laden trucks, the officials said.
On October 14, militants killed a truck driver from Rajasthan and set his apple-laden truck on fire.
Within 48 hours of that incident, two more similar attacks on non-locals were reported. A non-local labourer working at a brick kiln was killed in Pulwama district of south Kashmir. Hours later, two apple traders from Punjab were attacked -- one among them, identified as Charanjeet Singh, was killed and his associate injured.
The earlier incidents had already created fear among the non-local transporters.
The apple industry, considered the backbone of the Kashmir economy and the livelihood for half of its eight million population, is already suffering huge losses due to the restive situation in the Valley since August 5 when the central government stripped the region of its special status — Article 370 — and divided the state into two Union Territories.
The militants had already issued thread to the apple-growers, asking them to not harvest the crop, as a kind of protest against New Delhi’s decision to revoke the state's special status.
Comments
0 comment