The move comes after militants gunned down two labourers and critically wounded another in Kulgam in South Kashmir on Sunday evening.

In a message flashed to all district police, Inspector General of Police (Kashmir) Vijay Kumar said, “All non-local labourers in your respective jurisdiction should be brought to the nearest police or central paramilitary force or army establishment just now.” “The matter is most urgent,” the message said.

Sunday’s incident is the latest in a series of attacks on civilians in Jammu and Kashmir recently.

“Terrorists fired indiscriminately upon #NonLocal labourers at Wanpoh area of #Kulgam. In this #terror incident, 02 non-locals were killed and 01 injured,” Kashmir Zone Police said on its Twitter handle.

It said police and security forces have cordoned off the area.

According to officials, the militants barged into the rented accommodation of the labourers and opened fired.

This is the third attack on non-local labourers in less than 24 hours.

A street vendor from Bihar and a carpenter from Uttar Pradesh were shot dead on Saturday evening.

Amid the spate of civilian killings, Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha had on Sunday vowed to “avenge every drop of their blood” by “hunting down terrorists and their sympathisers”.

Sinha said attempts are being made to disrupt the peace and socio-economic progress of Jammu and Kashmir and the individual growth of people, and reiterated the commitment to the fast-paced development of the Union territory.

“I pay my heartfelt tributes to the martyr civilians and condolences to the bereaved families. We’ll hunt down terrorists, their sympathisers and avenge every drop of innocent civilians’ blood,” Sinha said in his monthly radio programme ‘Awaam ki Awaaz’.

BJP state spokesman Altaf Thakur while condemning the killings said it was “nothing but pure genocide”. “The gruesome murder of non-locals is nothing but inhuman and shows the frustration of militants,” he said.

On Thursday, a Junior Commissioned Officer and a jawan were killed in Mendhar area of Jammu’s border district of Poonch in a fierce gunfight between militants and Army troops.

Sources said the militants were suspected to be part of the same group which killed five Army soldiers in an encounter on Monday in the district.

Monday’s encounter, along the Mughal Road linking Poonch to Shopian in south Kashmir, was the worst in the area in 17 years. Security forces had launched a massive search following the encounter, and it was during combing operations in Bhata Durian forests, adjoining the area of Monday’s encounter, that Armymen came under fire from militants.

Police had earlier told The Indian Express that militants have in 2021 targeted civilians and, more recently, members of the minority community in Jammu and Kashmir.

Police officers attributed this to the “frustration of terrorist handlers” following a destruction of their support structures and effective maintenance of law and order. There is a new challenge, though. “Unlike full-time militants who go missing from their villages or advertise themselves on social media and thus end up figuring on militant lists, these part-timers are largely under the radar and thus difficult to track,” a police officer, who did not wish to be named, had said.

(With PTI inputs)