Suspected militants on Thursday shot dead two truck drivers transporting apples in Jammu and Kashmir’s Shopian district, and injured another, PTI reported. This came hours after block development council elections concluded.

Director General of Police Dilbagh Singh said the militants fired at the three trucks near Chittargam in Shopian.

“It’s an unfortunate incident,” an unidentified senior police official told the news agency. “The truck drivers had ventured into interior areas without informing the security forces.”

The suspected militants reportedly stopped the trucks, which were registered in Haryana, Rajasthan and Punjab, and fired indiscriminately at the drivers when they attempted to flee. The attackers also set the vehicles on fire.

A police official said the bodies of the two drivers were recovered while the injured man was moved to a hospital in Srinagar.

One of the drivers killed in the attack was identified as Mohammed Illiyas, a resident of Alwar in Rajasthan, while the injured person was identified as Jeevan from Hoshiarpur in Punjab. The identity of the other victim is being ascertained.

The attack came over a week after an apple trader from Punjab was shot dead by suspected militants in Shopian. The same day suspected militants gunned down a labourer from Chhattisgarh in Pulwama district.

On October 14, a truck driver from Rajasthan was shot dead in Shopian. Suspected militants also set his truck on fire.

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