A migrant worker, hailing from the Banka district of Bihar, was found dead with multiple bullet injuries in the Wachi area of Shopian on Friday. He worked in the corn fields to earn his livelihood.
According to preliminary reports, suspected terrorists active in the area were behind the fresh targeted killing of a non-local worker in the area.
Till late evening, Kashmir zone police had not made any official statement even as investigations were underway to ascertain the circumstances leading to the killing of a non-local worker.
Deputy Commissioner, Shopian Sahahid Saleem along with senior police officers also visited the spot where the dead body was recovered.
This is the first incident of targeted killing after the formation of the Omar Abdullah-led government in Jammu and Kashmir.
Nine days ago, a jawan of the Territorial army was first kidnapped and later found dead in the Pathribal area of Anantnag.
Meanwhile, the deceased worker has been identified as Ashok Kumar Chauhan. He hailed from the Banka district of Bihar and is survived by two minor kids and a wife. One of his close relatives, who also worked alongside him in the fields, told reporters Ashok Chauhan was working in the maize fields when he received a call around 7.00 a.m. on his mobile phone to check the quality of corn stock Friday morning. After some time when we started contacting him, there was no response from his side, a close relative of Ashok Chauhan said. "As we started looking for him we stumbled upon his dead body in the nearby fields with several marks of bullet injuries on his head, neck and lower torso". Ashok was residing in the Sangam area of Anantnag. The fellow workers claimed they were worried about their safety as well after one among them had been targeted in the broad daylight in the fields.
In February this year, two migrant workers hailing from Amritsar were targeted from a close range by unidentified terrorists in the Shaheed Gunj area of Srinagar. A sikh carpenter identified as 31-year-old Amritpal Singh was killed on the spot while another person identified as Rohit Masih succumbed to his critical injuries the next day.
In 2023, a total number of 14 civilians were killed in different incidents of terrorist-related violence while 31 were killed in 2022, 41 in 2021, 38 in 2020, and 44 in 2019 across J&K.
