Leave Shopian’, Police to non-Local truck Drivers after 5 Deaths in 4 Attcks
New Delhi: Days after five non-local people were killed in multiple terror attacks within 2 weeks in south Kashmir, police have asked truck drivers and labourers to leave Shopian. Reports claimed that the authorities have also stopped truck drivers, from the Mughal road to enter Shopian district.
Besides, the police have also notified safe spots for them (Truck drivers) coming to Kashmir to ferry apples. Speaking to leading portal News 18, Sukhdev Singh, a driver from Punjab said,”On Thursday, the police came and told us to leave without loading our consignment.”
Earlier on October 24, the day when the Jammu and Kashmir went to polls for the Block Development Council (BDC), two people were killed and one was left injured when militants opened fire at two trucks near Chitragam of Shopian. Prior to that incident, an apple trader from Punjab was shot dead by militants in Shopian. The truck driver died while his assistant was injured.
On October 16, Sethi Kumar Sagar, a brick kiln worker and resident of Besoli area of Chhattisgarh, was shot dead by terrorists at Nihama area near Kakpora railway station. “We have fanned out teams in various parts to nab the killers,” Director General of Police Dilbagh Singh said.
In another incident, prior to this, two terrorists, including a suspected Pakistani national, killed an apple truck driver from Rajasthan at Shirmal village of Shopian. The trucker was driving an apple-laden truck and had come to one orchard to collect the consignment.
Notably, the incidents of targeting non-Kashmiri workers in the valley is rising after the post-paid mobile services were restored in Valley, nearly 72 days after the communication was snapped, following the Central government’s decision to abrogate Article 370.
Reacting over these killings, Army Chief General Bipin Rawat asserted that these attacks are an attempt to disrupt resumption of normalcy in Kashmir.
