Pak-based TRF takes responsibility for Ganderbal attack

SRINAGAR: Pakistan-based militant outfit The Resistance Front (TRF) has owned responsibility for Sunday’s attack 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 militants who carried out the targeted killing of seven civilians in Gagangir area of Ganderbal district is believed to be two to three.

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.

Meanwhile, sleuths of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) are visiting the militant attack site on Monday to make their own assessment of the attack.

Officials said that the death toll in the militant attack on a private company’s labourers’ camp in Gagangir area reached seven after another injured labourer succumbed in hospital.

Those killed by the militants 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 militants. The attack took place around 8.15 p.m. on Sunday.

The attack on civilians engaged in an important infrastructure project in Sonamarg has received wide condemnation. (IANS)