Listen to this article:

Srinagar: For Mohammad Aalam, a mason from Bihar, Kashmir had always been about hope. Like thousands of labourers from Bihar and other parts of India, Aalam had travelled to Kashmir for work, believing the wages he earned here would help meet his family’s needs back home. But after the recent wave of targeted killings, hope has given way to fear.

“I don’t want to put my life at risk, I have young children back home,” Aalam told The Wire. “I just want to go back. I had come here to earn a living in the Valley, but the recent killings have made me afraid.”

The fresh killings of two migrant labourers at a brick kiln in Kilam village of south Kashmir’s Kulgam district has reignited fear among non-local workers across the Valley. For many, the attacks have revived memories of past attacks at a time when they had come to believe that such killings were in the past.

The fear is not confined to those working in construction or brick kilns but also those employed in apple orchards, markets and small businesses who say the atmosphere has suddenly changed.

For Mahi, who is from Punjab and has been selling key holders in Srinagar for the past five years, it is important that the authorities ensure the safety of those like her.

“The fear which erupted after the series of migrant killings in the past has returned,” she said.

Among those killed in the Kilam attack was Deepak Ratrey, a resident of Bundeli village in Chhattisgarh’s Sakti district. He and 28-year-old Bhupendra Bhaina from the neighbouring Sarangarh-Bilaigarh district had travelled to Kashmir in search of work and were employed at a brick kiln. Their journey to earn a livelihood ended in tragedy on the night of July 31, when militants attacked them, killing both men.

Sanjeev, a migrant from Bihar who operates a sugarcane juice cart in Srinagar, told The Wire that the fresh attack has unsettled even those who had spent years working in Kashmir.

“I have been working in Kashmir for three years, but this is the first time that I feel scared,” he said. “My family members back in Bihar are calling me back, saying life is more important than money.”

Sanjeev stands beside his sugarcane juice cart in Srinagar, a day after the Kilam attack, as fear and........

© The Wire