By IANS
Srinagar : There is fear and panic among thousands of non-Kashmiri labourers following diktats from a guerrilla group, Hizbul Mujahideen, asking them to leave the valley within a week.
Another guerrilla group, Jaish-e-Muhammad has also endorsed the order issued here Friday.
The guerrilla diktat followed a statement by the hardline Hurriyat chairman Syed Ali Geelani earlier this week in which he had said that all non-locals working in the valley must vacate as their presence was leading to "the criminalisation of the society".
Geelani had issued the statement after two workers from Bihar were arrested by the police in north Kashmir's Kupwara district for the alleged rape and subsequent murder of a 10-year-old girl in Langat village.
Tabinda, an eighth class student was found murdered in a maize field July 20. Investigations revealed that the girl had been raped before being killed.
Police has arrested four people, two from Bihar and two Kashmiris, in connection with Tabinda's rape and murder.
As the news of the diktat spread Saturday, hundreds of workers from various parts of India started leaving the valley. At least eight buses carrying migrant labourers left from Batamaloo locality of the state's summer capital Srinagar Saturday morning, while many others hired taxis for their exodus from here.
Thousands of migrant labourers from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan and other Indian states are presently working in the valley as carpenters, masons, barbers, electricians, painters while others are working as unskilled labourers in both industrial and agricultural sectors.