Militants kill 7, including migrant workers, in Kashmir

NEW DELHI/SRINAGAR - Gunmen in Indian-administered Kashmir raked a construction site work camp with bullets, killing seven and wounding several others, days after a new government was formed in the territory.

The attack on Oct 20 is one of the worst in 2024 targeting civilians.

The territory's Chief Minister Omar Abdullah called the attack "dastardly and cowardly", while India's Home Minister Amit Shah vowed those responsible would face the "harshest" response.

Muslim-majority Kashmir has been divided between rivals India and Pakistan since their independence from British rule in 1947, and is home to a long-running insurgency.

Attackers targeted workers from outside the Himalayan region, who were reported to be building a road tunnel connecting Kashmir with the far northern Ladakh region, bordering China.

India has pumped billions of dollars into multiple ambitious infrastructure projects along its disputed frontiers with arch-rival Pakistan and China.

"At least two armed militants barged into the mess of the private construction company and fired at workers who were dining," said a senior police officer who did not want to be named.