After a large number of Dogra Hindu and Kashmiri Pandit employees fled Kashmir out of fear triggered by targeted killings by terrorists, now the Bihari labourers have also started packing up to leave the valley following a grenade attack on them a day after a labourer was shot dead in Budgam.

In an overnight incident, terrorists tossed a grenade injuring two Bihari labourers at the Aglar Zainpora area of Shopian. Police said that the two labourers sustained minor injuries. A day earlier, a 17-year old Bihari labourer identified as Dilkhush was shot dead and another injured by terrorists. A bank manager, Vijay Kumar, belonging to Rajasthan was also shot dead inside the bank in Kulgam.

These incidents have created fear among the outside labourers who have started packing up their belongings for moving out of the valley. A labourer said that about 24 persons from Bihar were working at the spot in Shopian where terrorists tossed a grenade. “We had come here to earn our livelihood and not to get killed by terrorists. We will move to some other state and work there in a safe environment”, he said.

A large number of Bihari labourers migrate to Kashmir every year to work in brick kilns.

Hizbul Mujahideen commander Nisar Khanday was killed in an encounter last night with security forces at Rishipora in south Kashmir’s Anantnag. One AK-47 assault rifle and ammunition were recovered from him.

In the initial exchange of fire, three Army personnel and a civilian were injured. All injured were immediately airlifted to Army’s 92 Base Hospital in Srinagar for treatment and are stated to be stable, said the police.

The education department on Saturday transferred 177 Kashmiri Pandit teachers from various districts of the Valley to Srinagar city. The decision was taken after the recent targeted killings in the Kashmir Valley in which Kashmiri Pandits, non-Locals and locals were targeted. The central government had on Friday indicated that the Kashmiri Pandit employees recruited in Kashmir under the PM’s Package would not be transferred outside the valley but would be adjusted in safe places in the valley.

The Kashmiri Pandit employees have rejected these transfers and were sticking to their demand of being sent to Jammu until the situation improved in Kashmir. However, the government does not want to send them outside Kashmir and become a partner in the ethnic cleansing of the valley.

More than 60% of Kashmiri Pandit employees are reported to have fled the valley and reached Jammu although the administration has set up check posts at several places on the Srinagar—Jammu highway to stop such migration.

The Dogra employees recruited under the SC quota several years ago in Kashmir have also returned here in large numbers and on Saturday blocked the main bridge over the Tawi River demanding transfer to Jammu.