Following reports of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's death, widespread protests erupted in Kashmir, with demonstrators expressing strong anti-US and anti-Israel sentiments.
Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com comes across a Ganesh temple in Kashmir's summer capital that remains a well kept secret.
Security forces used tear smoke and baton charges to disperse stone pelting protestors in several localities of the bandh hit Jammu and Kashmir capital Srinagar on Wednesday.
Shanaya ticks off her bucket list... Anjali-Nivin take their film to Rotterdam... Shehnaaz asks for some divine intervention...
From a Pakistan-trained militant to one of the prominent separatist faces in Kashmir, life has come a full circle for chief of the banned Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) Yasin Malik, who was in limelight for varied reasons over the past three decades of turmoil in the erstwhile restive border state.
Threats were often communicated to Pandit homes through notes tied to stones chucked through a window, or a notice pasted on a wall. Those sometimes came from neighbours eyeing that Pandit family's property. Those threats often worked in the atmosphere of terror during that awful season of vacuous exercise of State authority, writes David Devadas, longtime Kashmir watcher and author of two books on the Valley.
The chief opposition in the state, the Jammu and Kashmir People's Democratic Party has breached the stronghold of National Conference in prestigious Srinagar Parliamentary constituency by gaining a lead in five seats with Chief Minister Omar Abdullah trailing in Sonawar seat.
Authorities on Thursday placed the moderate All Parties Hurriyat Conference Chairman Mirwaiz Moulvi Umar Farooq under house arrest to scuttle a rally called by the separatist group.
Violent clashes broke out between a group of youths and security forces in parts of the city on Saturday, leaving a youth and a policeman injured in stone pelting as separatist groups called a strike in Srinagar condemning the police action on Jamia Masjid on Friday.
One person was killed in a clash between a mob and security forces in downtown Srinagar on Sunday evening, shattering the peace that was by and large witnessed in Kashmir through the day with curfew in force in the capital and two other towns.
Curfew-like-restrictions were imposed in the old city of Srinagar and some uptown areas to foil protests and a sit-in at the historic Jamia mosque after the Friday prayers.
Curfew continued to remain in force in parts of the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir on Friday as a precautionary measure but the rest of the Valley observed a shutdown in wake of the killing of a youth when security forces allegedly opened fire on Wednesday.
Geelani, chairman of hard-line Hurriyat Conference, also tried to defy the house arrest and lead a march towards the UNMOG.
Curfew remained in force in entire Srinagar district and Anantnag town on Saturday to thwart the separatists' plan to stage a two-day sit-in in the city centre even as the death toll in the ongoing unrest climbed to 56 in the Valley with the death of a youth injured in firing.
Clashes broke out between youths and security forces in several areas of Srinagar and Anantnag districts after Eid prayers on Friday even as separatist leaders including Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq were put under house arrest as a precautionary measure.
Hundreds others were wounded many of whom received bullet and pellet injuries and are undergoing treatment in various hospitals.
