The Indian Air Force on Friday resumed its rescue operations to airlift as many as 190 people trapped in snow-hit Kishtwar district of Jammu and Kashmir.
"130 Helicopter Unit -- "The Condors", of the IAF stationed at Jammu yet again undertook a demanding operation of rescuing stranded people from the inaccessible villages of Kishtwar district," a defence statement said on Saturday evening.
They said police parties fanned out to find them amid reports that they had been abducted and killed by terrorists.
With Monday's court order, the total number of proclaimed offenders in Kishtwar stands at 36, they said.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday charged the Jammu and Kashmir government with playing politics on the Kishtwar riots and cautioned that this was another Pakistan design in which separatist forces were involved.
Three women, including former minister Sakeena Masood (National Conference), won elections on Tuesday to enter the male-dominated assembly in Jammu and Kashmir.
'Diplomatic and economic responses are first announced and then implemented. A military response is announced only after it is done.'
The 270-km Jammu-Srinagar highway reopened on Sunday after a day-long closure due to heavy snowfall, allowing stranded vehicles to proceed to their destinations. However, several other important inter-district routes, including the Mughal Road, Sinthan Pass, Sonamarg-Kargil inter-UT road, and Bhaderwah-Chamba inter-state road, remained closed for vehicular traffic due to heavy snowfall.
Curfew continued on Tuesday in Kishtwar for the sixth day running, even as restrictions were partially lifted in Samba district and other areas of Jammu region, which were witness to recent incidents of communal clashes.
Four persons, including two policemen, were injured in fresh clashes which broke out in Kishtwar on Monday as locals defied the curfew to protest against the arrest of a youth for his alleged involvement in Friday's communal violence in the area.
Security forces on Sunday claimed to have busted hideout of two Hizbul Mujahideen commanders, wanted for their roles in 2011 Delhi high court blast, and seized huge cache of arms and ammunition in Kishtwar district of Jammu and Kashmir.
Curfew remained in force on Saturday in violence-hit Kishtwar district, even as protests against Friday's communal clashes there rocked Jammu and adjoining districts, where normal life was disrupted due to a bandh.
Two top terrorists of Lashker-e-Toiba (LeT) were on Sunday gunned down by security forces in a fierce gun-battle in Kishtwar district of Jammu and Kashmir.
Incidentally, 164 of the total 356 candidates in the fray from the 43 assembly seats of Jammu region got less votes than none of the above, which gives an option to voters to reject all candidates in a constituency.
The dastardly dimensions of the attack are gradually sinking in even as the Government of India announced its immediate diplomatic and other retaliatory measures. It is generally expected to be followed up with punitive military action across the LoC, sooner than later, observes Mohammad Sayeed Malik, the distinguished commentator on Kashmir affairs.
'We need to raise the costs and consequences for Pakistan. It is long overdue. Our initial surgical strike was effective for about six months. Then, the Balakot strike provided a deterrent for perhaps two to three years. But we cannot operate under the assumption that such limited responses will suffice for decades to come.'
Terrorists opened fire at a popular tourist spot near Kashmir's Pahalgam town on Tuesday afternoon, killing 26 people, mostly holidayers from other states, in what is the deadliest attack in the Valley since the Pulwama strike in 2019.
Acting on a tip off, troops of the 11 Rashtriya Rifles launched a search operation in Sondar forest belt in Taksham area of the district, nearly 300 km from Jammu, a senior army official said.
Curfew was on Wednesday lifted in Kishtwar, 13 days after restrictions were imposed there following communal strife, as the situation was returning to normal.
Members in Rajya Sabha on Monday voiced concern over violence in Kishtwar area of Jammu and Kashmir with Opposition saying the country's "sovereignty and integrity" was at stake and the matter should not be dismissed as an inter-community clash.
Jammu and Kashmir is facing a severe water crisis this year due to a massive rainfall deficit. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has expressed concern about the situation and called for a proactive approach towards water management and conservation. The state has witnessed an 80% deficit in rainfall this year, raising the possibility of drought in the valley this summer. Several water bodies are flowing below the zero level mark, and some springs in south Kashmir have dried up completely. The water level in Jhelum and other major streams is alarmingly low.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the chief secretary of Jammu and Kashmir to file a detailed affidavit on the communal clashes in Kishtwar district and subsequent steps taken by the state government to control the situation.
Kishtwar is the face of secularism that Srinagar wears. The secularism which the Indian government follows is self defeating, feels BJP MP Tarun Vijay.
After two days of violence in the area, normalcy returned on Thursday with shops and market places opening.
Mohd Ali, Haji Anayat Ali of Kargil and their assistants Shero Ali and Nazir Ahmad of Kathua had gone to the higher reaches of Warwan in J-K's Kishtwar district to purchase livestock in August 1998 but did not return to their homes.
A 32-year-old man chargesheeted in the deadly terror attack on a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) convoy in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district five years ago has died of a heart attack in the Government Medical College Hospital in Jammu, officials said.
Several deaths were reported across the country due to rain-related incidents like lightning strikes and drowning.
A bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam turned down the plea of the state government against compensating the injured persons till the judicial commission looking into the incident files its report
Sheetal Devi finished second in the women's individual compound open ranking round with a stunning performance to directly make a round of 16 entry
The government on Monday ruled out any terror or "external aggression" link to the communal violence in Jammu and Kashmir and asserted that there will be no repeat of 1990 when Pandits were forced to leave KashmirValley.
Two persons from Kishtwar were arrested on Wednesday and charged with criminal conspiracy in connection with the terror mail traced to Jammu and Kashmir owning responsibility for the Delhi high court blast.
Security forces on Sunday intensified their operation to flush out terrorists from the forest area of Jammu and Kashmir's Anantnag district on the second day of encounter that has left two soldiers and a civilian dead.
The Union cabinet on Wednesday accepted the recommendations of the high-level committee headed by former President Ram Nath Kovind on simultaneous elections.
The hideout was dismantled by police in collaboration with the troops of Rashtriya Rifles and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in a meticulously planned operation in Paribag area of Bhadat Saroor, Senior Superintendent of Police, Kishtwar, Khalil Poswal said.
A soldier's family in Jammu and Kashmir's Kishtwar was preparing for his marriage in December but fate had something else in store as the braveheart laid down his life fighting terrorists in Rajouri district.
An Army captain lost his life while four terrorists are believed to have been killed in an ongoing operation in the higher reaches of Jammu region's Doda district on Wednesday, officials said.
As investigators struggled for a breakthrough five days after Delhi High Court blast, two men considered close to surrendered militants were detained in Kishtwar in Jammu and Kashmir from where an e-mail purportedly sent by Harkat-ul-Jihadi claiming responsibility was sent.
The Jammu and Kashmir police on Thursday booked Varinder Singh, suspected to be the bodyguard of the fugitive radical preacher Amritpal Singh, under the Arms Act in connection with a gun licence issued to him in Kishtwar district, officials said.
The encounter broke out after the terrorists opened fire at the search party personnel, who retaliated, the officials said.
At least 36 people were killed and 19 injured when a bus carrying passengers skidded off the road and rolled down into a 300-foot gorge in Jammu and Kashmir's Doda district on Wednesday, officials said.
