High pay, high peril: conflict-torn Indian Kashmir still attracts migrant workers

Every spring, mason Mohammad Ghulam Sarwar boards a train to Indian Kashmir, seeking higher wages despite the risk of being targeted by militants in the disputed Himalayan region.

Sarwar, 25, is one of an estimated half a million migrant workers who stream into the Himalayan region each year, forming the backbone of an economy increasingly reliant on labour from some of India’s poorest states.

The dependence has endured despite decades of insurgency and a series of militant attacks that have made migrant workers vulnerable targets.

Since 2019, at least 24 migrant workers have been killed in militant attacks across the territory, according to local media reports. More than 1,500 people were killed in the same period, according to the South Asia Terrorism Portal, 219 of them civilians.

The latest attack last month saw gunmen shoot dead two brick kiln workers from the central state of Chhattisgarh.