Gunmen kill seven in India-administered Kashmir, wound several others

Gunmen in India-administered Kashmir have raked a construction site work camp with bullets, killing seven people and wounding several others, Indian media has reported.

Among the seven killed was a doctor, the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency reported on Monday, adding several others were wounded.

The attack on Sunday is one of the worst this year targeting civilians.

The contested territory's chief minister, Omar Abdullah, called the attack late Sunday "dastardly and cowardly", while India's interior minister Amit Shah vowed those responsible would face the "harshest" response.

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

'Heinous act'

Abdullah, who was sworn in as the region's chief minister on Wednesday after its first local elections for a decade, said he strongly condemned the attack on "non-local labourers".

Soon after the attack, Abdullah confirmed two people had been killed but had warned there were also "a number of injured labourers, both local and non-local".

India's home minister Amit Shah called the killings "a despicable act of cowardice", in a statement.

"Those involved in this heinous act will not be spared, and will face the harshest response from our security forces," Shah said.

The attack took place Gagangir in Sonamarg region, where Nitin Gadkari, India's minister of roads said the "innocent labourers" had been working on a "vital infrastructure project".

Gunmen fired automatic weapons at the camp from forested hills around, Indian newspapers reported.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government cancelled Kashmir's limited autonomy in 2019, accompanied by mass arrests and a months-long communications blackout.

His administration says the decision has allowed it to stem the insurgency, but critics have accused it of suppressing political freedoms.

The Muslim-majority region of Kashmir is claimed by both Pakistan and India in full, but each administers only part of it. Rebel groups have waged an insurgency since 1989, demanding independence for the territory or its merger with Pakistan. The conflict has killed tens of thousands of civilians, soldiers and rebels.