A ‘strategy note’ on Kashmir, circulated by terror group The Resistance Front, makes overt threats against non-locals, counter-terrorism officials, and even locals found helping “outsiders”, sources in the intelligence apparatus told News18 as the civilian death toll rose in Jammu and Kashmir.

Four labourers — three from Bihar and one from Uttar Pradesh — were shot dead and another injured by terrorists in three separate attacks in Srinagar, Pulwama and Kulgam districts in the past 48 hours. So far this month, 11 people have lost their lives in shootings targeting civilians.

The terrorist group believed to be behind the attacks is The Resistance Front, an offshoot of the Lashkar-e-Taiba which continues to enjoy safe haven across the border in Pakistan.

Intel sources told News18 that the terror outfit’s ‘strategy note’ on Kashmir, accessed by counter-terror agencies, threatens to carry out more attacks against non-locals “provided with new domicile certificates”. Under the garb of protecting Kashmir’s demography, it also threatens non-locals deployed in “strategic positions” in civil departments and security establishments, including the police force, sources said.

Sources added that the terror outfit’s note mentions the addition of seats in Kashmir’s engineering and medical courses as a ploy to admit non-locals “malign the atmosphere of the colleges and universities”, and threatens locals who help “non-local industrialists” in the process of land allotment. It adds that even officials who sign such documents will be added to the “enemy list”, sources said.

More alarmingly, the note, sources said, threatens to carry out terror attacks outside Kashmir as well, particularly in states to which IPS and IAS officials working in Kashmir belong. It also threatens harm to locals found assisting security forces during search operations.

According to sources in the Valley, over-ground workers of the TRF recently converted to main cadres to carry out targeted killings.

“We can see a shift in violence pattern. They want to give a very specific message that non-Muslims and minorities will not be accepted. These terror groups have a problem with new domicile act and new electoral process. These targets are very soft. They are those who are working in the society and for Kashmir,” a source told News18.

On October 12, five suspected militants of Pakistan-backed TRF were killed in two separate gun battles with security personnel in southern Kashmir. A day earlier on October 11, more than 900 over-ground workers of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), Al-Badr and The Resistance Front (TRF) were taken into custody in Kashmir.