At least 28 people died in rain-related incidents Sunday as heavy downpours lashed north and northwest India, causing landslides, traffic chaos and house collapses, as well as a dam breach which inundated several villages in Haryana.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday chaired a high-level national security meeting to discuss the situation arising out of intelligence alerts over possible terror threats via sea to Maharashtra and Goa. Attended by the country's top security officials, the two-and-a-half hour meeting is also believed to have discussed the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir, in the wake of the Amarnath Yatra scheduled to start next week, sources said.
Security forces killed five heavily armed foreign terrorists along the Line of Control (LoC) in Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir on Friday and said it was the "biggest" infiltration bid to have been foiled since 2021, when India and Pakistan effected a ceasefire understanding.
The BAT generally comprises special forces personnel of the Pakistani Army and terrorists.
The streets of Jammu wore a deserted look on Monday as the 'chakka jaam' agitation in Jammu region called by the Shri Amarnath Yatra Sangarsh Samiti got underway.The Samiti asked people not to use their private vehicles today. However, vehicles of mediapersons and ambulances carrying patients were exempted from the chakka jaam agitation.
Home Minister Amit Shah will chair a high-level meeting on June 3 to discuss the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir, the second such exercise in less than a fortnight which comes at a time when terrorists have been carrying out targeted killings in the Valley.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday flayed Dr Farooq Abdullah, who claimed that the media had distorted his son Omar Abdullah's comments on the Amarnath yatra issue.
Lt Gen (retd) S K Sinha, till recently Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, on Thursday launched a frontal attack on the state's main political parties, especially PDP and its patron Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, accusing him of being "hand in glove" with separatists and fundamentalists. At the centre of controversy over the land for Amarnath yatra which paralysed the valley in recent days, Sinha denounced PDP as "anti-national".
The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has removed all references to the Mughals and Delhi Sultanate from its class 7 textbooks. The new textbooks, released this week, have been designed in line with the new National Education Policy (NEP) and the National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCFSE) 2023, which emphasize incorporating Indian traditions, philosophies, knowledge systems, and local context into school education. The textbooks now include new chapters on ancient Indian dynasties, sacred geography, and government initiatives like Make in India and Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao. The revamp has been met with criticism from opposition parties who equate it with "saffronisation."
Police have filed a case against the army personnel, an official said, adding that records kept at a police station were also damaged.
General Singh said the army was ready for any exigency anywhere in the country.
Hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani on Friday said that the annual yatra to the Holy cave shrine of Amarnath in south Kashmir should be restricted to just a month instead of 60 days.
The governor requested the political leaders to ask their supporters to maintain calm and not believe exaggerated and unfounded rumours being circulated all around.
'The spirit of religious faith in Kashmir is inclusive.' 'There an inclusiveness of Islam in Kashmir.' 'An ordinary Kashmiri can be a political fundamentalist, but he can never be a religious fundamentalist.'
'What led to the present crisis was an action taken by my government in good faith. Nobody realised then that things would come to such a stage. I feel that had it not been for the coming elections in the state, the cabinet decision (to allot land to the Amarnath shrine board) would not have been even noticed. It was the timing of the decision that resulted in a bad situation,' says Azad.
The Pandits congratulated the hajis for completing the pilgrimage and sought their blessings. They offered roses to the pilgrims.
Slamming Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani's demand for restricting Amarnath yatra to 30 days, Jammu and Kashmir Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh on Saturday.
Kher reportedly had earlier said that all the issues in the valley will be resolved if Article 370, which provides special autonomous status to Jammu and Kashmir is abolished.
The Amarnath row had been solved after an accord was signed.
Asserting that Article 370 is a thing of the past, Shah stated that no one can bring it back.
Over 500,000 pilgrims have so far visited the holy Amarnath cave shrine in the Himalayas, although only 3.50 lakh had registered themselves from different parts of the country for this year's yatra.
In the blast, 11 people were injured, one of them critically, he said. While 7 of the injured are locals, 4 others are outsiders.
Two pilgrims and a woman tourist from Delhi died of cardiac arrest enroute the holy cave shrine of Amarnath in South Kashmir, taking the death toll in the ongoing pilgrimage to five, even as nearly 80,000 pilgrims paid obeisance at the cave shrine since July 2.
General Bipin Rawat was appreciative of the measures and standard operating procedures instituted by the units and formations to meet the challenges posed by the inimical elements.
'A war is being fought in South Kashmir.' 'Do not underestimate your enemy, be sensible and cautious and be prepared for the worst if you choose to move in the region unprotected,' advises Sanjeev Nayyar.
Although the Supreme Court has mandated the Centre to conduct the polls by the end of September, a spate of terrorist attacks in J&K could cause delays.
'Chillai-Kalan' will end on January 31. The cold wave continues even after that in Kashmir with a 20-day-long 'Chillai-Khurd' (small cold) and a 10-day-long 'Chillai-Bachha' (baby cold).
The Centre had earlier ordered deployment of about 10,000 central forces personnel to Kashmir in order to strengthen counter-insurgency operations and law and order duties.
A record number of about 1.6 lakh devotees paid their obeisance at the 3,880-m-high holy cave shrine of Amarnath in the first five days of the yatra, official sources said.
The countdown for this year's pilgrimage to the holy cave of Amarnath in Kashmir, which will begin from June 29 till August 13 -- the Shravana Poornima day -- has begun.
The attack came a week after eight CRPF jawans were killed and 20 others injured on Saturday in a militant ambush on a convoy in Pampore town in Pulwama district, the highest single-incident casualty in three years in the state.
With this batch as many as 53,995 yatris from different parts of the country have left for the cave shrine since the commencement of yatra on June 10.
Security forces launched a cordon and search operation in Khiram in Srigufwara area of the south Kashmir district this morning after receiving specific intelligence input about the presence of militants in the area, a police official said.
State-owned BSNL has become the first telecom firm to launch mobile services at the Holy Amarnath cave, as well as on the two routes of the yatra.
Inclement weather could delay the annual Amar Nath Yatra, hinted Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah.
According to a press statement issued after the all-party meeting, communalisation of the situation in Jammu and Kashmir should be prevented at all costs as this would adversely impact the secular fabric of the nation.
