Amid reports that militants may continue to target non-locals, including migrant labourers, Jammu and Kashmir police have asked landlords to install CCTVs outside homes rented out to them.
Besides, the police have also urged non-locals not to roam in “vulnerable areas” after dusk.
“Outside labourers are only advised not to roam at night in vulnerable localities & landlords have been advised to install CCTVs, where they work/stay,” the police said after reports emerged that non-locals were directed to vacate Srinagar and their employers asked to ensure they reached their hometown safely.
This year at least eight non-local labourers have been killed in targeted attacks by the militants in Anantnag, Shopian, Pulwama and Kulgam districts in south Kashmir and Srinagar city. Pakistan-based The Resistance Front (TRF), an offshoot of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), has claimed responsibility for most of the attacks on migrant labourers and Kashmiri Pandits.
A senior police officer told DH that besides these measures, security forces are ensuring area domination in places where the labourers are staying or working and have also deployed security outside the residences of Kashmiri Pandits (Hindus).
He said the crackdown on militant infrastructure in recent years has reduced the number of local active militants in Kashmir albeit the emergence of ‘hybrid’ ultras has become a new challenge for the security forces.
According to police, ‘hybrid’ militants are not listed as militants, but radicalized and trained enough to carry out terror attacks and then slip back into routine life. As most of them are teenagers and highly motivated, they do not cross the border for arms training nor do they go underground to commit violent acts.
The word “hybrid” first emerged after TRF militants killed two non-Muslim teachers inside the premises of a government school in Srinagar on October 7 last year. Police said most of the civilian killings in Kashmir are being carried out by 'hybrid' militants now.