Thousands of migrant workers in IIOJK moved to secure locations, hundreds flee

Indian authorities have moved thousands of migrant workers in Indian Ilegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) to safer locations overnight, while hundreds have fled the occupied valley after a wave of targeted killings, two security officials said on Monday.

So far eleven civilians, including five migrant workers, have been killed in IIOJK since early October despite a widespread security crackdown in the heavily militarised region.

While the trigger for the latest wave of attacks was not immediately clear, occupied Kashmir has been the site of armed insurgency against New Delhi for decades.

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"We moved thousands of workers to secure places and are facilitating their return home," a senior police official told Reuters, declining to be named as he was not authorised to speak to the media.

In other areas, security forces had intensified patrolling to prevent any militant activity, the official added.

A government spokesman in Srinagar declined to comment on the movement of migrant workers.

The decision to move workers came after an attack on migrant labourers from Bihar on Sunday. Police alleged that separatists barged into a rented room in occupied Kashmir's Kulgam district and fired at them, leaving two dead and one wounded.

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IIOJK has gone through various bouts of violence over the years, but the latest wave of attacks appears to be targeted towards non-Kashmiris, including migrant workers, and members of the minority Hindu and Sikh communities in the Muslim-majority valley.

The hundreds of thousands of migrant workers currently in IIOJK form the backbone of the region's workforce in agriculture and construction.

Some of them said they now fear for their lives.

"We have seen worse times, but were never targeted. This time, we are afraid," said 32-year old Mohammed Salam, originally from the northern state of Bihar, who has worked in IIOJK for the last six years.

Salam said police picked him up, along with others, from rented accommodation on Sunday night and moved them to a protected area.

"We can't sit idle here," he said, "We will go back."