Nineteen candidates saw an extremely close contest in the maiden District Development Council (DDC) polls in Jammu and Kashmir where the margin of victory was less than 100.
The veteran politician, who has been chief minister of the erstwhile state three times as well as union minister, also said the time has come for the opposition parties to come together and fight the forces who are bent on destroying the secular fabric of the country.
Here are some of the big political leaders' who await their fate on Monday.
An official said the attack appears to be a reprisal for killing of several Lashkar terrorists.
Ganderbal district recorded the highest of 56.40 per cent polling in the Valley, while Poonch district of Jammu region polled the highest of 71.62 per cent votes across J-K.
The project holds strategic significance as Zojila Pass is situated at an altitude of 11,578 feet on the Srinagar-Kargil-Leh National Highway and remains closed during winters due to heavy snowfall.
Police fired warning shots and lobbed teargas shells to disperse stone-pelting protestors during two-hour curfew relaxation in old Anantnag town on Saturday morning even as authorities imposed curfew in two more areas of Trehgam and Kupwara towns after agitation by locals.
Curfew remained in force in entire Srinagar district and Anantnag town while restrictions were in place in the rest of the Valley as normal life remained paralysed for the 39th consecutive day.
Khan, 37, was injured in the terror attack and later flown to Delhi in an air ambulance for specialised treatment. However, he succumbed to injuries at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences.
At least six persons were injured in a powerful explosion in south Kashmir Anantnag town on Tuesday afternoon.
This time army killed 1 terrorists along the Line of Control in Gurez sector.
'Why should I as a common man not know where my parents are in Kashmir, how they are doing. It is my right,' student Mohammed Aleem Syed, who moved the Supreme Court to be allowed to visit Kashmir, tells Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
The attack comes in less than 24 hours when militants of banned Hizbul Mujahideen ambushed a BSF convoy at neighbouring Goriwan area at Bijbehara killing three of its personnel.
All the victims hailed from Murshidabad district of West Bengal, the police said.
Curfew is in force in five police station areas of downtown city and Batamaloo and Maisuma areas in uptown, a police official said.
Eight school children were killed and nine others wounded in a road mishap in south Kashmir's Anantnag district on Thursday afternoon. A senior police officer said the bus, which was carrying the students back home from school, fell into a deep gorge in the mountainous Shangus area of Anantnag district.
Leh in Ladakh region recorded the lowest temperature this winter as mercury plummeted to minus 17.1 degree Celsius on Tuesday night, a meteorological department official said.
Curfew from the south Kashmir town was briefly lifted on Saturday morning after remaining in force for 49 days.
Curfew has been lifted from all parts of Kashmir except Anantnag town
The annual pilgrimage to the 3,880 metre high holy cave shrine in south Kashmir Himalayas will resume on Tuesday, they said.
Mufti said relation of J&K with India will end if the terms and conditions of the state's accession to the Union were changed.
Authorities on Friday imposed strict restricts on the movement of people in old Srinagar city and Anantnag town in south Kashmir, fearing law and order problems over the anti-Islam video made in the US.
Restrictions on the assembly of people will remain in force to maintain law and order.
Barring a stone pelting incident at Soibagh area in Budgam district, the situation was peaceful in the areas where the polling was held, the officials said.
The Lok Sabha election will be held in 7 phases, beginning on April 11, 2019 and ending on May 19, 2019.
With security heightened across the nation on Republic Day, a militant was neutralised at Kokernag in Jammu and Kashmir's Anantnag District on Tuesday.
There were no reports of anyone getting hurt in these clashes.
For the first time in nearly two years, tourism has been on the rise in Kashmir. But what does that mean for the average Kashmiri, ponders Abhishek Mande Bhot after a recent visit to the Valley.
Curfew in many parts and separatist-sponsored strike disrupted normal life for the 30th straight day on Sunday in Kashmir Valley where violence has so far left 54 persons dead and more than 6000 others injured.
A suspected militant was killed and 20 people were injured on Thursday when an explosive-laden car blew up in Bijbehara town in south Kashmir's Anantnag district, police said.
Violence erupted in south Kashmir's Anantnag town after an army truck crushed a youth on Saturday afternoon. Angry mobs took to the streets after a passing army truck ran over a youth identified as Mohammad Yasir Wani, 24, in the Anchidoora area of Anantnag town. The mobs roughed up the truck driver and a soldier and torched the vehicle.
The Anantnag police, however, said they were not aware of the incident.
Security agencies made a quick estimate of passports issued between 2015 and 2019, and found that out of the 40 youth who had gone to Bangladesh or Pakistan for studies, 28 had infiltrated back into the country as trained terrorists, the officials said.
Eid festivities were on Monday marred in Kashmir Valley as clashes broke out between protesting youths and police soon after the congregational prayers concluded in Anantnag and Sopore, said the police. Clashes broke out in Anantnag, 50 km from Srinagar, when the police tried to prevent a large group of teenage boys from taking out a protest rally after the congregational Eid-ul-Adha prayers, they said.
As many as 160 terrorists were killed and 102 arrested in Jammu and Kashmir in 2019.
'Respect the pledges you have made to the people of Kashmir.' 'Jammu and Kashmir is not like any other state of the country.'
In Srinagar, wearing black bands, scores of PDP leaders and activists, led by party president Mehbooba Mufti, took out a protest march from the party's head office near the Sher-e-Kashmir Park.
Defying Hurriyat hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani's diktat to Kashmiris against joining police service in the Valley, thousands of youths have opted for the job of special police officer.
The NIA investigators, with the support of forensic and automobile experts, have been able to identify the vehicle used in the blast.
In a statement, the ministry of home affairs said the UT of Ladakh consists of two districts of Kargil and Leh while the rest of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir is in the UT of Jammu and Kashmir.
