ALBAWABA - The police department in Kashmir reported that gunmen killed two men in the capital Srinagar, the first targeted attack on civilians this year in the disputed territory of Kashmir.
According to police, two Sikh workers in India's Punjab state were shot late Wednesday, one of whom died immediately and the other on Thursday morning in the hospital.
Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since their independence in 1947, with each claiming the entire high-altitude territory but administering different parts of it.
Since 1989, rebel groups in Indian-controlled Kashmir have waged an insurgency, demanding independence or a merger with Pakistan. The conflict has killed tens of thousands of civilians, soldiers, and militants.
Militants have been targeting Indian arrivals in Kashmir since 2019 when New Delhi ended the Muslim-majority region's constitutional semi-autonomy, but Wednesday's attack was the first in six months.
The change allowed all Indians to buy land and abolished Kashmir's permanent residents' exclusive land and job rights, resulting in tens of thousands of Indians arriving each year in search of employment.
Although clashes between militants and government forces have decreased dramatically since the 2019 change, rebel groups claim that any Indian attempting to settle in Kashmir is a "legitimate target".
