Four army men, including a Major, and an equal number of militants were on Tuesday killed while eight other security personnel and a civilian were injured in two separate encounters in Kashmir, officials said.
This is the second such incident of mutilation of the body of an Indian soldier on the LoC since October 29.
The poll process for the second tier of the Panchayati Raj system will be completed by November 5, he said.
Seven militants were killed by the army in an ongoing fierce encounter in north Kashmir's Kupwara district on Monday.
Dozens of students from the government higher secondary school in Newa area of Pulwama district staged a protest against the alleged high-handedness of security forces.
Mobs defied curfew to indulge in stone-pelting leaving 15 people, including eight security personnel, injured in the incidents.
As soon as the operation ended, local residents started pelting stones at the security forces, he said, adding the clashes were going on till reports last came in.
Authorities shut down schools and other educational institutions in north Kashmir as a precautionary measure for maintaining law and order.
An army officer, a trooper, two cops and five militants were among nine persons killed in the four-day-long fierce encounter in the northern forests of Kupwara district.
The defence minister will review the security situation along the Line of Control in the Valley and Line of Actual Control in the Ladakh region.
Three cops of the Jammu and Kashmir police and three terrorists were killed in an ongoing north Kashmir gunfight on Tuesday.
Reeling under strict restrictions with no access to communication since August 5 when the Centre announced its decision to end Jammu and Kashmir's special status under Article 370 and bifurcate the state into two union territories, the people in the Valley have been facing a hair-raising challenge of finding a hairdresser to have their unkempt beards trimmed and unruly locks chopped.
"Around 5 am, militants opened firing on an army camp at Langate in Kupwara district, which was retaliated by the alert jawans," an army official said.
The terrorists opened firing on a naka party of security forces in Sopore, resulting in injuries to three CRPF jawans and a civilian, the officials said.
After occupying it for over two decades, paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force vacated the Firdous Cinema located in the old city, thereby meeting a long pending demand of the locals.
Intense clashes had rocked Kashmir Valley in 2016 following the death of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in July that year, resulting in the death of over 85 people.
The team of 21 Rashtriya Rifles had entered the house of a civilian to prevent a hostage situation when they came under attack from the terrorists who had already reached there. While the four army personnel and the police Sub Inspector lost their lives in the encounter, the civilians trapped in the house were safely evacuated.
A soldier of the counter-insurgency Rashtriya Rifles was killed in an ongoing encounter with militants in the Khaimal forest area in North Kashmir's Kupwara district on Wednesday afternoon.
The first phase of the Panchayat polls in Jammu and Kashmir passed off peacefully without any incident on Wednesday. The authorities had made elaborate security arrangements for today's polls during which people exhibited enthusiasm in electing the representatives at the village level.
'A couple of hours before the H-Hour, the Kupwara division opened small arms and mortar fire on posts opposite its area of operation.' 'This was a diversionary tactic.' 'As Pakistani forces began to react to the firing, special forces teams began to slowly cross the LoC into PoK.' Nitin Gokhale reveals how planning for the surgical strikes began hours after the Uri attack.
In the current year, army foiled 23 infiltration attempts killing 39 armed intruders along the LoC.
This is the first such incident in Jammu region when a drone carrying arms and explosives was shot down by the BSF, frustrating Pakistan's attempt to smuggle weapons into the Union Territory using the hexacopter.
Twenty-six-year-old Lieutenant Sushil Khajuria was part of the team that was scrambled to take on terrorists who were trying to infiltrate the Indian territory from across the border.
Two youth were killed and another wounded on Tuesday when security forces allegedly opened fire to disperse protesters in north Kashmir's Handwara town.
Two militants including a top commander of Lashker-e-Tayiba were on Thursday killed in a fierce gunbattle with security forces in Kupwara district of north Kashmir, a senior police officer said.
The Pakistani troops opened fire at 5 pm on Sunday towards Indian posts located close to civilian areas in Karnah area, 140 kms from here, official sources said on Monday.
A top Lashkar-e-Tayiba militant was killed in an overnight encounter in Handwara area of north Kashmir's Kupwara district.
In its 'Inquiry Report of Unmarked Graves in North Kashmir', the SHRC states that the unidentified bodies had been buried in 38 sites in north Kashmir's Baramulla, Bandipora, Handwara and Kupwara districts.
Seven militants have been killed in separate gun battles with security forces in Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir, army officials said on Wednesday.
One woman was killed and her husband was in jured in an exchange of fire between north Kashmir security forces and terrorists late Sunday night.
The policemen were patrolling the area in view of a separatist-sponsored strike.
There has been a steady rise in the number of youth taking up arms in the Valley since 2014 onwards as compared to 2011, 2012, and 2013.
Two militants were killed in a fierce encounter in north Kashmir's Kupwara district on Saturday.
Three terrorists were killed and two security forces personnel injured on Friday in an encounter in Lolab in Kupwara district in Jammu and Kashmir, officials said in Srinagar. Three terrorists were killed and two security forces personnel injured on Friday in an encounter in Lolab in Kupwara district in Jammu and Kashmir, officials said in Srinagar. Security forces have surrounded a house in Maidanpora village in north Kashmir's Kupwara district where four militants o
Four militants were killed as army troops foiled an infiltration bid near the Line of Control in Keran sector of Kupwara district in north Kashmir. The troops foiled an infiltration bid by militants from across the Line of Control in Keran sector on Friday, triggering a gun-battle that lasted for more than 36 hours, during which four militants were killed. The bodies of all the slain militants have been recovered along with a cache of arms and ammunition.
A huge cache of arms, ammunition and explosives were recovered in the Kashmir Valley and three militant sympathisers were also arrested in separate operations, officials said on Tuesday.
Security forces on Tuesday averted a major tragedy with the timely detection of a powerful IED on Srinagar-Kupwara road, official said.
The joint separatist camp, including Hurriyat Conference factions led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik-led Jammu-Kashmir Liberation Front, has asked the people to march to Tral to pay tributes to Wani, who was killed in an encounter with security forces on this day last year.
Defence Secretary Shashikant Sharma on Monday visited the Tangdhar sector of the Line of Control in north Kashmir's Kupwara district.
Militants late on Friday night gunned down a father and his son in Rajwar area of north Kashmir's Kupwara district.
