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SRINAGAR: A Kashmiri trucker was attacked by a mob shouting anti-Kashmir slogans in the volatile Jammu region, sparking condemnation from a prominent business body in Jammu and Kashmir.
Police and family sources said Farooq Ahmad, a resident of Keegam in south Kashmir's Shopian district, was injured when "miscreants" attacked his Srinagar-bound oil tanker near Nandini Tunnel on Srinagar-Jammu Highway Saturday night and later assaulted him.
The victim was left in a bleeding state by the six assailants, who were shouting anti-Kashmir slogans and travelling in two cars, sources said.
However, a team of police and paramilitary forces from a night patrol shifted him to a hospital in Jammu for treatment.
"His condition is stable. Three people have been arrested and two or three more are on the run but we will nab them soon," Senior Superintendent of Police, Jammu, Uttam Chand, told The Citizen.
The accused - Sanjeev Kumar, Rajinder Singh and Sunil Sharma - have been booked on charges of "attempt to murder" and two cars have been seized from them. Ruling out any mischief, the SSP said it was an incident of "road-rage" and prompt action has been taken against the culprits.
"We have registered a case under section 307 against the miscreants. Although the statement of the victim has not been yet recorded, road rage is believed to be the reason behind the incident, as per preliminary investigations," he said.
Seeking a clarification from the J&K government on the issue, Kashmir Economic Alliance chairman, Mohammad Yasin Khan, such incident push people towards taking "drastic steps".
"It is time for him (chief minister) to explain his position before we are left with no options but to take drastic step the onus of which shall lay on the state government," Khan, who is head of Kashmir Traders and Manufacturers Association, said.
The attack comes close on the heels of a similar incident in Udhampur when a Kashmir-bound truck was attacked with petrol bombs by suspected Hindu right-wing activists on October 9, resulting in the death of a Kashmiri trucker, Zahid Rasool Bhat.
The Udhampur attack sparked communal tensions across Jammu and Kashmir where the BJP sealed a historic, power-brokering alliance with the regional PDP earlier this year.
Massive pro-freedom and anti-India protests erupted in parts of Kashmir Valley for many days against the attack with Hindu right-wing groups in Jammu threatening to impose an economic blockade on the landlocked, Muslim majority Valley.
