https://arab.news/gr5ez
- Muslim-majority Kashmir has been divided between rivals India, Pakistan
- The disputed Himalayan territory is home to a long-running insurgency
NEW DELHI: Gunmen in Indian-administered Kashmir killed two laborers and wounded at least two others, the contested territory’s chief minister said Sunday, condemning a “dastardly and cowardly attack.”
Muslim-majority Kashmir has been divided between rivals India and Pakistan since their independence from British rule in 1947, and is home to a long-running insurgency.
Attackers targeted Indian workers from outside the Himalayan region.
Omar Abdullah, who was sworn in as the region’s chief minister on Wednesday after its first local elections for a decade, condemned the attack.
“Very sad news of a dastardly and cowardly attack on non-local laborers at Gagangir in Sonamarg region,” Abdullah said in a statement.
“I strongly condemn this attack on unarmed innocent people,” he said, adding that “two have been killed, and two to three more have been injured.”
Nitin Gadkari, India’s minister of roads, condemned the “horrific terror attack on innocent laborers” working on a “vital infrastructure project.”
At least 500,000 Indian troops are deployed in Kashmir, battling an insurgency with tens of thousands of civilians, soldiers and rebels killed since 1989.
India regularly accuses Pakistan of supporting and arming the rebels, a charge Islamabad denies.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government canceled Kashmir’s limited autonomy in 2019, accompanied by mass arrests and a months-long communications blackout.
His administration says the decision has allowed it to stem the insurgency, but critics have accused it of suppressing political freedoms.