Militants sneak into J&K from Pak, kill 3 civilians

Srinagar: Three workers of the General Reserve Force (Gref) were killed on Monday in Jammu and Kashmir’s Khour, Akhnoor area by gunmen who are believed to have sneaked into the area from across the Line of Control (LoC) around midnight and fled back into PoK after committing the act. A report said that a fourth worker was injured in the shooting.

The pre-dawn raid took place at a Gref camp at Battal, about three kilometres short of the LoC, and all the victims were “civilian” workers. There were ten Gref men and their labour force staying at the detachment when two to three gunmen struck using assault rifles, the police and Army sources said. The Jammu and Kashmir government blamed the attack on militants and informed the state Assembly, now in its Budget Session in winter capital Jammu, that the area was quickly cordoned off and searched by the security forces. Gref is the execution force of the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) which comes under the ministry of defence.

Chief minister Mehbooba Mufti condemned the attack and said, “No one feels good over the killings. Everyone feels bad.”

The state Assembly witnessed noisy scenes with ruling PDP-BJP members and those from the Opposition exchanging hot words. Some BJP members also chanted anti-Pakistan slogans.

The issue was raised in the House by Opposition National Conference’s Devinder Singh Rana, who asked, “Who is responsible for the bloodshed?”

“Three men have been killed and we do not know what happened,” Mr Rana said. He then asked, “Where has the 56 inch chest gone missing? Was it just a militant attack or the surgical strike by Pakistan?”

His veiled dig at Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, exasperated the BJP members and they started chanting slogans against Pakistan.

Former chief minister, Omar Abdullah said that the government has not learned any lessons from such attacks which took in the past. “The ease with which the attackers have come and gone would suggest we have learnt nothing from previous attacks. May the deceased RIP,” he tweeted.

In Delhi, Union minister  Jitender Singh said it was now evident to the entire world that terrorism in India was actually being perpetrated by Pakistan.

He also said that a large number of infiltration bids from across the borders in Jammu and Kashmir have been made unsuccessful by the security forces. “It has become more than evident to the entire world that entire terrorism being imported or exported into India is actually being inspired, perpetrated, perpetuated from the Pakistani soil,” he told reporters. Mr. Singh, a prominent face of the BJP in Jammu and Kashmir, is elder brother of Mr. Rana who raised the issue of the terror attack at GREF camp and took a veiled dig at the Prime Minister’s 56-inch chest  talk.