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Witnesses give chilling account of labourers’ killing in Kashmir
Militants killed two labourers from Bihar, Raja and Joginder, in their room at Wanpoh, Kulgam in Kashmir; all victims were poor street vendors and labourers
All five non-locals killed by suspected militants in Kashmir this month were poor street vendors and labourers earning their meagre livelihood hundreds of kilometres away from their homes.
On Sunday, militants shot dead two labourers from Bihar, Raja Reshidev and Joginder Reshidev, in their room at Wanpoh, Kulgam. Chun Chun Reshi Das, also from Bihar, sustained multiple injuries and was being treated at the Government Medical College in Anantnag.
Meanwhile, the Anantnag district administration has granted ex gratia relief of ₹1 lakh each to the next of kin of both Raja and Joginder.
Both the victims have been working here as construction labourers each earning ₹500-700 a day.
“We were sitting in our room when we heard that some people in a room were shot at. We brought them to the hospital,” said M Zulfikar, a construction worker from Bihar staying at Wanpoh.
Another worker said one of the persons was shot six times. “I don’t know how many attackers were there? I was in my room,” he said.
Agency reports quoting the mother of Joginder said he had come to Kashmir some 3-4 months ago. “He is survived by three children. The government should help us,” she said.
On Saturday, carpenter Saghir Ahmad, 53 of Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, was killed at Litter village in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district. He was living in rented accommodation there and had been coming to Kashmir for the past one year.
His family said Saghir was doing the dishes in his rented room when he was fired upon.
“He has four daughters and a son who has been working in Rajasthan. Saghir had gone for work far away from his family because of poverty. If there would have been work, why would he go hundreds of kilometres away from home,” his younger brother M Naeem told the media on Sunday.
“His son was also forced to go to Rajasthan for work. They have nobody to take care of them except us. The government should provide help of ₹1 crore to my nieces,” he said.
On the same day, Saghir was killed, 30-year-old Arvind Kumar Sah, a resident of Bihar, was shot dead at Eidgah in Srinagar by militants while he was busy selling “golgappas” outside the park.
He used to live at Hawal along with a group of non-locals and had been coming to Kashmir for the past 10 years.
On October 5, Virender Paswan, 55, from Bhagalpur, Bihar, was killed at Medina market at Lal Bazar hours after the killing of famous chemist ML Bindroo inside his shop.
Paswan used to live in a small room 3 km away from the place where he was shot dead. He was selling “golgappas” when he was killed in a targeted attack. He is survived by four daughters and two sons.
