Militants have shot dead five Hindu labourers working on a remote mountain road in Indian-administered Kashmir, police say.Four labourers were reportedly hurt in the attack, which took place late on Thursday night in Rajouri district, some 150km from the city of Jammu.
Hindus are often targeted by militants fighting Indian rule in Muslim-majority Kashmir.
A BBC correspondent says the attack comes amid a recent lull in violence.
Coalition partners in the state government have been discussing a cut in the number of Indian troops deployed in the region.
The district of Rajouri, bordering Pakistan, is regarded as a hotbed of militant activity.
Whose side these coalition (PDP) scumbags are on? While Kashmiri Hindus were ethnically cleansed out of the valley and poor Hindu labourers, who come from other states, are killed on basis of their religion, PDP is asking for reduction in troop numbers. How do we believe these jokers when their own party president Mehbooba Mufti is a known terrorist symphatiser and hid a Lashkar e Taiba terrorist in her house (Jan 2006)?