Attacks on migrant labourers are not random violence but a deliberate tactic. Non-local workers, who come mainly from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Chhattisgarh to work in construction, brick kilns and orchards, are soft targets: unarmed, unguarded and living in the open. Killing them is intended to drive migrant labour out of the Valley, choke the construction and horticulture economies that depend on it, and signal that the security situation has not normalised. The pattern matters for policy because the state's response has to protect a dispersed, mobile workforce rather than fixed installations, which is far harder.

Kulgam is one of four districts of south Kashmir, alongside Anantnag, Pulwama and Shopian, a belt that has historically accounted for a large share of militancy-related incidents in the Union Territory. The district's mix of dense orchards and forested uplands, including the Akhal forest area, has repeatedly been used as cover during prolonged encounters between security forces and militants. Jammu and Kashmir has been administered as a Union Territory with a legislature since the reorganisation of the former state in 2019, with the Lieutenant Governor exercising authority over public order and police.