When the country has been at war, the Opposition has buried its differences with the government, points out Aditi Phadnis.
Showering his praise on the armed forces guarding the nation, Prime Minister Modi earlier on Sunday dedicated this year's Diwali to the jawans.
Fourteen people were detained for questioning, officials said, adding that some of them have been let off.
The noose around the Border Security Force Commandant R K Birdi tightened with a head constable recording his statement before a magistrate claiming that the officer had forced a jawan to fire on a 16-year-old boy, whose killing had triggered violent protests in the Kashmir valley.
As Pakistan resorted to fresh firing from across the border, Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday said if anyone dares to cast an evil eye on India, security forces will give a fitting response.
"Based on this consensus, the process of disengagement is almost complete. Our efforts will be to take the matter beyond disengagement; but for that, we will have to wait a little longer," he added.
Here's a recap of the events from the past 24 hours.
The remark by Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil assumes significance as the BSF is being phased out of counter-insurgency operations in Jammu and Kashmir to be replaced by the Central Reserve Police Force.
The equestrian statue of the Maratha warrior king has been installed at the Army's 41 Rashtriya Rifles Maratha Light Infantry Regiment in the north Kashmir district which shares its border with Pakistan. Special prayers were held by a priest on the occasion.
The screenplay and execution lets Wagah down, feels S Saraswathi.
A suspected Lashkar-e-Tayiba terrorist was killed on Thursday in a brief gunfight with security forces in a village in Pulwama district of south Kashmir, police said.
Kanker district Superintendent of Police Rahul Bhagat told PTI on phone that a joint patrolling team of the BSF and the district police from Koylibeda was ambushed near Sulangi village by around 150 naxals in which two BSF jawans -- a head constable and a constable--were killed on the spot while three others, including a special police officer, were injured.
The terrorists pumped bullets into the two troopers at close range before disappearing into the bylanes of the congested locality
The Jammu and Kashmir police on Tuesday set to charge-sheet the paramilitary border security force (BSF) commanding officer and a trooper involved in the killing of a 17-year-old schoolboy on February in Srinagar in February.
Pakistani troops targeted over 60 hamlets and scores of border posts in heavy overnight shelling in Kathua and Samba districts, with mortar bombs landing deep inside Indian territory.
Five army personnel were killed and six injured on Monday when terrorists ambushed their vehicle in the remote Machedi area of Jammu and Kashmir's Kathua district, officials said.
Nine security force personnel were injured in the firing by the terrorists, they said adding five of them succumbed to injuries.
Despite the national capital recording its best air quality on Diwali day in eight years, pollution levels may rise due to low night temperatures and sporadic burning of firecrackers though there is a ban on their manufacture, storage, sale and use within the city.
Shots were fired at an Observation Post of the Border Security Force in Akhnoor sub-sector of Jammu district by Pakistani snipers on Sunday, prompting Indian troops to retaliate.
'It is important to make a clear distinction between the officers and jawans. The officers retire at 54 and with two extensions can go up to 58 years before they go home. A jawan on the other hand retires at 38. Therefore, to portray a picture that all army men retire young is wrong.'
Heavy artillery firing also left a trooper dead across the border, it said.
The fierce gunfight was going on in the area with the induction of more troops to neutralise two terrorists trapped at the spot, they said.
Amid repeated ceasefire violations by Pakistan, Defence Minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday said there has been a series of "provocations" by the Pakistani Army and the country's armed forces are "responding adequately".
In a major ceasefire violation, Pakistani Rangers on Wednesday opened heavy fire at Indian border outposts along the international border in Jammu district, killing a Border Security Force personnel and leaving three other troopers injured.
Over 40,000 villagers decided to leave their home along the India-Pakistan border
On Sunday, a civilian was killed and two persons were injured in the Pakistani shelling along the IB in Kanachak belt of Jammu district, raising the death toll in the ceasefire violations since Thursday last to 12 and injuries to over 60.
As per reports, Pakistan has fired 3000-4000 mortar shells targeting Indian villages and border towns in which 12 people have been killed.
The two jawans were among the four injured in the blast in the morning and they succumbed at the Army Hospital at Leimakhong, police said.
An army jawan was also injured in the encounter that began on Saturday night after troops launched a search operation in Khumhair forests of Handwara tehsil.
Hostilities at the border escalated on Saturday with fresh ceasefire violations by Pakistan in Rajouri and Poonch sectors on Eid.
The first firing which killed six civilians, occurred when army personnel mistook coal mine workers returning home in a pick-up van singing songs on Saturday evening, to be insurgents belonging to the Yung Aung faction of the banned outfit National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Khaplang (NSCN-K), about whose movements they had been tipped-off.
The Border Security Force on Tuesday said Pakistani troops were not accepting protest notes from India over ceasefire violations and that there was "no communication" between the two sides.
The outgoing BSF DG said that Head Constable Narender Singh was killed in an "action of the Border Action Team" of Pakistan.
The paramilitary force, set up in December 1, 1965, is India's first line of defence and has the distinction of being world's largest border guarding force.
Singh said the Doklam "deadlock" was resolved similarly and without any confrontation.
CRPF DG K Durga Prasad said the terrorists were clean shaven and that "shows" that they were fidayeen attackers.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh likely to visit Jammu and Kashmir tomorrow.
