A Chinese “interests” angle has surfaced in the terror attack carried out on Sunday evening by the Resistance Front (TRF), an offshoot of Pakistan-backed Lashkar-e-Taiba, on the labour camp at a tunnel construction site in Jammu and Kashmir’s Ganderbal district, in which seven people, including a doctor, were killed.
According to a report by The Times of India, another terrorist group – People’s Anti-Fascist Front (PAFF), an offshoot of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), has claimed that the attack on the labour camp in Ganderbal district was aimed at disrupting Indian military deployments towards the eastern border and stated that it was “against our military interests and those of our Chinese friends.”
PAFF called the tunnel a military project and said it was such “projects in occupied territory are death traps” and urged people to avoid them.
“Military projects in an occupied territory are death traps. Hence, every sane-minded person should avoid them,” PAFF said in a statement, reported ToI.
PAFF also praised TRF for what it called a “strategic attack” on workers involved in construction of the 6.5 Z-Morh tunnel on the Srinagar-Leh highway.
The tunnel, constructed to provide all-weather connectivity between Kashmir and Ladakh, is being built by Uttar Pradesh-based APCO Infratech. It is scheduled to be inaugurated in early November.
‘Chinese friends’ is PAFF’s rhetorical attempt
The report quoted officials as saying that while it’s known that China and Pakistan have strategic cooperation, there’s no evidence to support Beijing’s involvement beyond the statement by PAFF.
The officials further said that the reference to “Chinese friends” is a rhetorical attempt by PAFF to align their goals with Beijing’s interests.
They also said that infrastructures in sensitive regions are dual-use and should not be characterised solely as a military project as it may be misleading.
TRF said the attack on the tunnel construction site was conducted by its Falcon Squad and described the project as one intended primarily for military transportation.
It again warned locals and non-locals to avoid working on “illegal projects” and threatened further attacks on similar infrastructure efforts.
The terrorist attack on Sunday was carried out on the orders of TRF chief Sheikh Sajjad Gul, who carries Rs 10 lakh bounty announced by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in 2022.
The NIA, on Monday, arrived in Gagangir to probe the terror attack on the labour camp at a tunnel construction site.
The attack in which seven people – six labourers and a doctor, were killed happened after the workers went into the camp and were having dinner in the mess.
It was the deadliest terrorist attack in 2024 after the June 9 ambush in Reasi district, which killed nine pilgrims.
According to the police officers probing the attack, police officers probing the Ganderbal attack, the heavily armed terrorists opened fire with automatic weapons for over 15 minutes on Sunday evening around 8:15 pm to inflict maximum casualties.
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Kashmir terror attack linked to Chinese ‘interests’, says Pakistan-based outfit
