At least eight persons were killed in a cloudburst near the holy cave shrine of Amarnath in south Kashmir Himalayas on Friday evening, damaging 25 tents and three community kitchens, officials said.
Targeted killings in Srinagar and in South Kashmir have inspired fear among migrant labourers from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh plying their trade in the Kashmir Valley.
Puran Krishan Bhat was fired upon by terrorists near his residence in the Chowdhary Gund area of south Kashmir's Shopian district this afternoon, resulting in his death.
Security forces launched a cordon and search operation in the Sirhama area of Anantnag following inputs about the presence of militants there, a police official said.
The first phase of the infrastructure renovation and creation of some new ones has been recently completed on a stretch of 26 kilometres along the front in Jammu while another 33 kilometres in the same region is being carried out, official sources told PTI.
Delhi saw seven cold wave days in January 2020, while it did not record any such day last year.
The anti-encroachment drive by Jammu and Kashmir administration intensified on Saturday as the land illegally occupied by 'influential persons' was retrieved at many places in the valley, officials said.
The killing of a Rajput driver by a terrorist has generated a sense of fear and uncertainty among members of the tiny community in Kakran village in Kulgam district who have stayed on in Kashmir Valley despite decades of militancy but are now considering leaving for a safer place.
Couples -- young and old -- celebrated Valentine's Day on Tuesday with flowers and gifts even as a few right-wing outfits played spoilsport in some parts of the country.
Kumar also said in the last three years, the Jaish-e-Mohammed has been "wiped out" in the Kashmir Valley. Only seven to eight terrorists are active now, he said.
According to the IMD, a rain event is categorised as a cloudburst if a weather station receives 100 mm of rain in one hour.
A cloudburst occurred near the holy cave shrine of Amarnath in south Kashmir Himalayas on Wednesday, but there was no loss of life in the incident, officials said.
'Where are the safer zones in Kashmir? We have to move out, drop our children at local schools and attend to our duties'
Immigration authorities at the airport in New Delhi stopped yet another Kashmiri journalist from travelling abroad, citing restrictions imposed by the Jammu and Kashmir police, officials said on Wednesday.
Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha flagged off the first batch of 4,890 pilgrims from the Jammu base camp.
The move comes after terrorists gunned down two labourers and critically wounded another one in Kulgam in South Kashmir on Sunday evening.
While two terrorists were killed in Kupwara as many were eliminated in Kulgam, they said, adding some more terrorists are hiding and operation was still underway in both the areas.
Acting on specific inputs about the presence of terrorists in Tilwani Mohalla Waggad in the Tral area of Awantipora, in south Kashmir's Pulwama district, security forces launched a cordon and search operation there, a police official said.
As per one of the arrested persons, the slain terrorists were Pashto-speaking either from a village in Pakistan bordering Afghanistan or from Afghanistan itself, the Jammu police chief told reporters in Jammu in the evening.
Shah arrived in the evening and was received at the airport by Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha and Union minister Jitendra Singh, among others.
Ahead of a crucial meeting on Jammu and Kashmir, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval on Thursday met Union Home Minister Amit Shah and is believed to have discussed the security situation in the Union territory which has witnessed a spate of targeted killings since May 12.
Large parts of north India reeled under numbing cold on Tuesday with the mercury remaining below freezing point at most places in Jammu and Kashmir, while dense fog in the early hours of the morning hit road and rail traffic movement.
A police spokesman said based on specific input regarding the presence of terrorists in the Mirhama area of Kulgam in south Kashmir, a cordon and search operation was launched by the security forces there.
Both the terrorists, equipped with suicide vests and sophisticated weapons, were killed in the encounter on Friday, averting a major suicide attack in the city.
The gunfights broke out in Goplapora and Pombay areas of the South Kashmir district. Two terrorists each were killed in the twin encounters, a police official said.
The gunfights, which broke out on Saturday night, took place in Pulwama and Budgam districts of the Kashmir valley.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday arrested the People's Democratic Party youth wing president Waheed Parra in connection with a terror case, officials said.
The annual Amarnath Yatra began on Thursday as a batch of about 2,750 pilgrims left the base camp in Nunwan, Jammu-Kashmir, for the cave shrine housing the naturally formed ice-lingam in the south Kashmir Himalayas.
Muzaffar Wani, who is a teacher by profession, unfurled the national flag on the premises of the Government Girls Higher Secondary School in Tral.
While a verified Twitter handle of the Information and Public Relations department of Shopian claimed that the news about leaving of 'Kashmiri non-migrant Hindu population' was 'baseless', Ashwani Kumar Bhat, whose brother Puran Krishan Bhat was gunned down by terrorists on October 16, told reporters in Jammu that he has migrated and will never return to the Valley.
A group of Kashmiri Pandit employees, who were given jobs under a prime minister's package for the community, on Wednesday began preparations for "mass migration" out of Kashmir, protesting against a series of targeted killings of non-Muslim employees by terrorists.
The search operation turned into an encounter after the terrorists fired upon the security forces who retaliated, he said.
With terror groups misusing Aadhaar to camouflage the identity of their Pakistani cadres, the Jammu and Kashmir police will request the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to strengthen safety features of the biometric ID, officials have said.
Concerned over the development, the security agencies reworked their strategy, especially keeping in mind the Amarnath Yatra beginning June 30.
The meeting came after terrorists carried out a series of targeted killings in the Kashmir Valley that include non-Muslims, security personnel, an artist and local civilians.
Terrorists have stepped up attacks in the Kashmir valley over the past week.
The encounter had started at Hadigam area of the south Kashmir district during the night, the police said.
The snowfall started during the night at most places and early in the morning at few places, the officials said. They said while some areas in north Kashmir received light snowfall, most areas in central and south Kashmir experienced moderate snowfall.
A local 'hybrid terrorist' of proscribed outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) was arrested for the attack during a search and cordon operation, police said.
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