The West Bengal government brought back over 130 labourers from Jammu and Kashmir on Monday, The Telegraph reported. This is reportedly the largest group to arrive since last week when six migrant workers from Murshidabad district were killed by terrorists.

Mayor Firhad Hakim received them at the Kolkata station where they had arrived in special coaches of the Jammu Tawi Express. They were later sent back in buses to the seven districts from where they came.

“They were accompanied by two government officials and nine police officers and a small team of police personnel from Jammu,” Disaster Management Officer Sanjib Chaki told The Indian Express.

The largest batch of 112 labourers belonged to South Dinajpur district, while others are residents of districts such as North Dinajpur, Malda, Jalpaiguri, Birbhum, North 24 Parganas, and Coochbehar. Authorities also helped five workers from Assam return home.

The mayor addressed the group outside the station, saying that there was no security in Jammu and Kashmir. He also promised them jobs in the state. “The brothers [the workers] were in panic, and so were their families,” Hakim said. “Nobody wants their sons killed. Now their families will be relieved.”

Some of the labourers like 25-year-old Abdul Feroz, a resident of Kushmandi in South Dinajpur, were relieved to be brought back home. After the attack on the migrant workers on October 29, Feroz along with a few others asked his employer to pay their pending dues so that they could go back home.

However, some in the group were uncertain of their future. Ibrahim Sheikh (28) from Birbhum district reached Kashmir to find work about a month-and-a-half back. He decided to return after his relatives expressed concern over his safety. “Now, I don’t know what I will do,” he said. “I used to earn around Rs 20,000 a month working in a paddy field in Baramulla [district in North Kashmir]. Here we can earn very less. So, we don’t know, what to do now.”

A number of civilians have faced attacks in Jammu and Kashmir ever since India abrogated the special constitutional status of the state on August 5 and imposed prohibitory orders. On Monday, one person was killed and at least 35 people were injured in a grenade attack in Srinagar. Terrorists had shot dead two truck drivers transporting apples in Shopian district, and injured one on October 24. A week earlier, an apple trader from Punjab was shot dead by suspected terrorists in Shopian. The same day, a labourer from Chhattisgarh in Pulwama district was gunned down. On October 14, a truck driver from Rajasthan was shot dead in Shopian.

Also read:

‘Kashmir has changed’: Deadly attacks have sent migrant workers fleeing the Valley

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