Srinagar, Oct 18 (IANS): The bullet-riddled body of a Bihar resident was recovered by police on Friday in Jammu & Kashmir’s Shopian district.

Police said that the bullet-riddled body of a Bihar resident, identified as Ashok Chouhan, was recovered in Wanduna village of Zainpora area in Shopian district.

“The body was sent for completion of medico-legal formalities. A case has been registered in this incident and investigation is underway,” police said.

Police have confirmed that this is an act of terrorism. A manhunt has been launched to trace the assassins of the non-local civilian.

Non-local skilled and semi-skilled labourers including masons, carpenters, paddy harvesters and others engaged in different labour-intensive occupations have been attacked by the terrorists in Kashmir Valley in the past.

On April 8 this year, terrorists barged into an eatery in Shopian district and fired at a non-local taxi driver from Punjab, Paramjit Singh, who was accompanying foreign tourists. The guide sustained three bullet injuries.

Earlier n February, two non-locals from Punjab were shot dead by terrorists in the old city of Srinagar. A week later, Jammu and Kashmir police said the terrorists, who killed the two non-locals, were arrested in Srinagar and the weapon used in the attack was recovered.

The terrorist attack on a non-local has come two days after an elected government headed by Omar Abdullah took office in J&K. The Assembly election, which took place in J&K after 10 years, was largely people participative with an average of 68 per cent voters exercising their franchise to show faith in the country’s democracy and its institutions.

This was the first Assembly election in J&K after the abrogation of Article 370 and the division of the state into two Union Territories of J&K and Ladakh.