india

Updated: Oct 30, 2019 13:54 IST

A day after six labourers from West Bengal were killed in Jammu and Kashmir, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday asked the Centre to carry out a “strong investigation” so that the “real truth comes out”. Banerjee also said she had tasked a senior Bengal police officer to find out details about the brutal killing.

In a string of tweets that also announced Rs 5 lakh compensation for the families of the dead labourers, Mamata Banerjee said her party’s lawmakers in parliament and the state assembly had reached Murshidabad to meet the family members of the victims.

Banerjee expressed her shock at the killing of the Bengal labourers in her three tweets before she turned to the central government.

“Presently there are no political activities in Kashmir and entire law and order is with the Government of India. We, therefore, demand a strong investigation so that the real truth comes out,” she said on Twitter.

She did not elaborate what she meant by the real truth.

Kashmir police had yesterday said three or four unidentified gunmen forced their way into a house in south Kashmir’s Kulgam’s Katrasoo village, dragged out the six labourers from Bengal and shot them dead. Militants have killed 12 people from outside Kashmir in five attacks over the last fortnight in the state including four truck drivers and a labourer from Rajasthan.

Banerjee added that the government was deputing Sanjay Singh, additional director general South Bengal “to find out the details” about the incident.

Wednesday’s incident was the biggest terror attack in terms of the casualties since August this year when the Centre pushed a move past parliament to scrape Article 370 that had extended special status to Jammu and Kashmir. Parliament had also cleared a law to split the state into two union territories that would come into force from Wednesday midnight.

The twin changes also end restrictions on outsiders from buying land, triggering concerns that people from outside could change the region’s demography. The targeted killing of civilians state is seen as an attempt by militants to terrorise people from outside the state.