India to move some migrant workers in IIOJK to army camps after killings

Region's police chief says he had instructed officers to move workers after three labourers were shot

Vulnerable Indian migrant workers in Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) will be moved to army and police camps for protection after several were killed, the region's police chief said on Sunday.

Vijay Kumar said he had instructed his officers to move workers after three labourers from the eastern state of Bihar were shot in their rented accommodation on Sunday, two of whom died.

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“I have directed officers to shift the vulnerable urgently,” he told Reuters.

It was not immediately clear how many of the tens of thousands of Indians from other states who are working in occupied Kashmir would be affected, or if they would be confined in the camps or if the directive was compulsory.

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Nobody has yet claimed responsibility for Sunday's killings, or for an incident the previous day in which two other migrant workers were shot dead.

IIOJK has witnessed a decades-long armed insurrection that has only begun targeting migrant workers in recent weeks.