Five non-local construction employees and a local doctor were killed and five people injured in a militant attack in the Gagangeer area of Ganderbal on Sunday evening, hours after the administration had hosted a sporting event in Srinagar to showcase “normalcy”.

The attack faces the four-day-old Omar Abdullah government with its biggest challenge so far.

Although law and order comes under lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha, Omar faced tough questions from members of the Right-wing ecosystem that had opposed the return of electoral democracy to Jammu and Kashmir.

Sunday’s militant attack, the biggest on civilians in a long time in Kashmir, came in an area on the Baltal route that links Srinagar with the Amarnath cave. The area had been peaceful for years and the attack suggests the militants are spreading their zone of operation.

Sources said the militants sprayed bullets outside a mess for construction workersand managers, injuring and killing around a dozen people. One of those killed was a local doctor appointed to treat the employees involved in the project.

The labourers were working on the Z Morh tunnel, one of two tunnels that will connect Ladakh with the outside world through an all-weather road.

Videos showed blood-soaked bodies lying on the ground.

Initial reports suggested the involvement of two militants. A large number of security force personnel are searching the area for the killers.

Omar initially said two non-local workers had died and three were injured but later clarified that these numbers were not final and that the victims included both Kashmiris and outsiders.

An eyewitness said he saw two bodies lying on the ground, and added that an injured man he was ferrying in his vehicle to hospital had died on the way.

“Sad news of a dastardly & cowardly attack on non-local labourers at Gagangir in Sonamarg region. These people were working on a key infrastructure project in the area,” Omar said on X.

Union minister Nitin Gadkari called it a “horrific terror attack” on innocent labourers working on a “vital infrastructure project”.

This is the second attack since Omar took over as chief minister, suggesting a militant strategy to create trouble for the new government.

On Friday, suspected militants killed a corn seller from Bihar in Shopian district of south Kashmir.

Both Omar and Sinha had been busy earlier on Sunday with a 42km marathon and a 21km half-marathon organised in Srinagar, which drew 1,700 participants from across India and 12 other countries.

Omar participated in the half-marathon; Sinha later gave away the awards.