J&K: Pak-based terror outfit TRF takes responsibility for attack on civilians

TRF chief Sheikh Sajjad Gul, based in Pakistan, is the mastermind of this attack, say sources

Srinagar: Pakistan-based terror outfit The Resistance Front (TRF) has owned responsibility for Sunday’s terror attack on unarmed, innocent civilians in Jammu & Kashmir‘s Ganderbal district, official sources have confirmed.

Sources said, “TRF Chief Sheikh Sajjad Gul, based in Pakistan, is the mastermind of this attack. On his instructions, the local module of TRF became active, which for the first time targeted Kashmiri and non-Kashmiri people together. The number of terrorists who carried out the targeted killing of seven civilians in Gagangir area of Ganderbal district is believed to be two to three.”

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This incident has been carried out by the local module of TRF. This module was doing recce of the crime spot for the last one month. This terrorist organisation active in Kashmir has targeted Kashmiri Pandits, Sikhs and non-locals in the last one and a half years. This is a big change in the strategy of this module, which is simultaneously targeting non-local and local on development projects.

Meanwhile, sleuths of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) are visiting the terror attack site on Monday to make their own assessment of the attack. Officials said that the death toll in the terrorist attack on a private company’s labourers’ camp in Gagangir area reached seven after another injured labourer succumbed in hospital.

Those killed by the terrorists include both locals and non-locals working to build a tunnel between Gagangir and Sonamarg to make Srinagar-Sonamarg an all-weather road. The list of killed civilians includes Faheem Nasir (Safety Manager from Bihar), Angil Shukla (Mechanical Manager from Madhya Pradesh), Mohammad Hanif from Bihar, Dr Shahnawaz from Budgam district of Kashmir, Kaleem from Bihar, Shashi Abrol (Designer from Jammu) and Gurmeet Singh (Rigger from Gurdaspur, Punjab).

Five injured are being treated at SKIMS Super Speciality Hospital in Srinagar. Security forces cordoned off the area and an operation was launched to trace the terrorists. The attack took place around 8.15 p.m. on Sunday. The attack on innocent civilians engaged in an important infrastructure project that would make Sonamarg tourist destination an all-weather destination, thereby bringing livelihood to hundreds of locals, has received wide condemnation.