With his swearing-in, the five-decade-long practice of retired bureaucrats being appointed to the post has ended.
With the Centre acceding to the request of the Jammu and Kashmir government to assign law and order duties to the police, the process of pullout of the Central Reserve Police Force, a para-military force, from the state has begun in a phased manner
A youth was shot dead and another critically wounded, when police opened fire to disperse a stone-pelting mob in the Nowhatta locality of Srinagar, even as a complete shutdown was observed on Saturday against the Amarnath land transfer agreement.
The Jammu and Kashmir government on Monday evening released chairman of the hardline faction of Hurriyat Conference Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front chairman Mohammad Yaseen Malik and chairman of moderate faction of Hurriyat Mirwaiz Umer Farooq.They were arrested ahead of their march to Lal Chowk last month. Geelani was taken to a hospital in Srinagar on Monday evening, after he complained of sickness in police custody.
Curfew on Monday remain clamped in nine districts of Kashmir while it was relaxed in Bandipora and Handwara town of Kupwara. The curfew, which had been relaxed in a phased manner over the past few days across the Valley, was reimposed on Sunday following sporadic incidents of violence over varied issues, including the Amarnath accord, official sources said.
Three civilians, an army trooper, and a militant were killed in an ongoing fierce gunbattle between militants and surrounding security forces in Jammu, which is in the throes of a 60-day long violent Amarnath land row agitation. Police said a group of militants came to Bantallab locality in an autorickshaw on Wednesday morning and started firing indiscriminately resulting in the death of three civilians.
One person was killed when the police and paramilitary forces opened fire to bring the mob under control in Narbal area of Srinagar, after baton charges and tear gas shells failed to disperse the crowd.On Monday morning, police swooped on the headquarters of the pro-Independence Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front at Maisuma, just hundred yards away from Lal Chowk, and arrested Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front Chairman Mohammad Yasin Malik.
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.
The bus service was suspended on August 14 in the wake of violence in the Valley after five persons, including Hurriyat leader Sheikh Abdul Aziz were killed in police firing on a rally marching towards Muzaffarabad to end the 'economic blockade' enforced by Sri Amarnath Yatra Sangarsh Samiti in Jammu.
The presence of security forces in the Sonwar area, housing residences of almost all mainstream politicians and top civil and police officers is marked by heavy deployment to foil any untoward incident.
Against the backdrop of escalating violence in Jammu and Kashmir over the Amarnath land row, President Pratibha Patil on Thursday appealed for calm and said differences could be addressed through 'dialogue and reconciliation'.In her second address to the nation on the eve of Independence Day, Patil made no direct mention of the simmering crisis but said "whatever the problem, whatever the cause, whatever the reason, there is no place for violence in our society."
rediff.com asked prominent experts their opinion on the crisis and their suggestions to the central government on how to tackle the issue.
The Central team, which is in Jammu to take stock of the situation in the state over the Amarnath land row, will meet delegates of the Shri Amarnath Sangarsh Samiti at 4.30 pm on Saturday evening. Leaders from the Kashmir Valley, including National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah, People's Democratic Party chief Mehbooba Mufti and Saifuddin Soz, will be kept out of the meet as demanded by the Samiti.
Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil arrived in Jammu on Saturday with an all-party delegation and asked the Jammu and Kashmir administration to adopt a balanced approach while dealing with the current situation in the wake of violent protests over the Amarnath land trasfer issue.
The 18-member all-party delegation headed by Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil arrived in Jammu on Saturday to review the situation following recent violent protests, but the Shri Amarnath Sangarsh Samiti, which is leading the agitation over land transfer issue, refused to hold talks with the team members.
Bharatiya Jan Shakti leader Uma Bharti on Wednesday created a flutter outside Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's residence after she was barred from attending the all-party meeting on the situation in Jammu and Kashmir.
A magisterial probe was on ordered into the police firing in Samba district in which two persons were killed and 18 injured during a protest rally over the Amarnath land transfer row.
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.
Although the curfew was lifted on Tuesday from Jammu and the adjoining areas, the region witnessed protest rallies yet again, demanding the removal of Governor N N Vohra and the restoration of forest land to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board.
'Kashmiris are very adaptable people. They will wait. From India's point of view, I think we have lost a great opportunity. I don't think we should keep talking to Pakistan. We should talk to the Kashmiris. Ultimately, this matter has to be settled between New Delhi and Srinagar,' says A S Dulat, expert on Kashmir.
Curfew was lifted in Kathua and Samba towns in Jammu on Tuesday following the return of normalcy in the areas that were rocked by violence over the Amarnath land row.
