An uneasy calm prevails in Ladakh as authorities enforce a curfew following clashes between security forces and protesters demanding statehood and constitutional protections. The violence resulted in fatalities and injuries, prompting detentions and political reactions.
Cabinet Secretary Ajit Kumar Seth, Defence Secretary Shashikant Sharma and Home Secretary RK Singh were taken by surprise when the Army's Northern Command told them that there had been no consultations on the subject of revocation of the AFSPA even once in 2011. The chief minister's declaration was totally unilateral, the three top secretaries to the Government of India were told
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Thursday underscored the need to achieve parity between the state's Juvenile Justice Act and the National Act.
The Central Bureau of Investigation on Tuesday said the name of Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah never figured in the 2006 sex scandal case in which two ministers of the then Peoples Democratic Party regime were arrested.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Wednesday said withdrawal of the Armed Forces Special Power Act (AFSPA) from certain areas of the state was in no way an effort to undermine the role of the Army.
Anguished over disruptions in Parliament on the issue of FDI in retail, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Monday said the time has come for "no work, no pay" for MPs if minimum hours of business were not transacted .
Taking a dig at the Peoples' Democratic Party in Jammu and Kashmir, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said on Monday that opposition in the state is nervous and worried as they were finding it difficult to cope up with the fact that they were out of power.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Wednesday said that the tension at the Line of Control and International Border across the state directly impacts the tranquillity and development process.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah Tuesday asserted that his party would continue its alliance with the Congress party.
Sharing the concern of 38 lakh pre-paid mobile phone subscribers hit by the ban on their SIM cards in Jammu and Kashmir, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Monday said genuine users should not be affected as a small service group did not do proper verification while issuing such cards. Abdullah said he would hold talks with the Centre, including Home Minister P Chidambaram, to resolve the issue as the blanket ban on the use of pre-paid SIM cards is not the answer.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah briefed Prime Minister Narendra Modi on a devastating cloudburst in Kishtwar district that claimed 60 lives and injured over 100. Abdullah expressed condolences and assured assistance, while also questioning potential administrative lapses.
As schools in Kashmir Valley reopened on Monday after over three months, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah asked hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani and other separatists not to target children because they are going to schools.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Sunday said that the 'unelected nominees of New Delhi locked up the elected representatives' of the people of Jammu and Kashmir after prominent leaders from ruling and opposition parties were not allowed to leave their houses to prevent them from visiting the graveyard of 1931 martyrs in Srinagar.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Thursday said he will ensure that no person is denied a passport on the basis of his or her relative being involved in subversive activities.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah in an exclusive interview to CNN-IBN, alleges that the Bharatiya Janata Party is trying to capitalise on the Kishtwar violence for electoral gains. He rejects any role of his Home Minister Sajjad Ahmed Kichloo, who was forced to resign, in the Kishtwar violence, while coming down heavily on BJP leaders Arun Jaitley and Narendra Modi.
A joint commission can be the biggest Jammu and Kashmir centric confidence building measure by the two countries for the people of the state, says J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah. Mukhtar Ahmad reports.
Hitting back at the Peoples Democratic Party, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Thursday accused its leader Mufti Mohammad Sayeed of "shutting his eyes" to the sex scandal when it first surfaced in 2006 as his own people were involved.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Monday said he was eagerly waiting for the final report of National Investigating Agency (NIA) which is probing role of surrendered Kashmiri militant Liyaqat Shah for allegedly planning a terror attack here.
In the wake of the State Human Rights Commission's findings -- that over 2,000 unidentified bodies are buried in 38 sites in north Kashmir -- Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has said there was a need for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to find out the truth about what has happened in the Valley in the last 21 years. "There is a need for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission. That commission should be assigned to find answers to the incidents of the last 21 years," he said.
The officials said that intelligence agencies had been alerted about the possibility of a terror attack, but the inputs were utilised at another place, some 90 kilometres away from the site where the attack took place, resulting in a key security lapse.
'If the country felt very strongly about the BJP, then why did the country not put money where the mouth is?'
As he grapples with a difficult situation in Kashmir, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has admitted that the recent developments have 'dented' the credibility of his government and his own image, but made it clear that he would not run away as he was not a 'weak person'. He said the stone-pelting incidents and strikes in the valley are "symptoms of a wider problem", which is that people on both sides of the Line of Control have been fed on a 'diet that there is a problem'.
Having defied convention, Kashmir's first all-girls rock band is facing a challenge of online threats and abuses from conservative sections of the society.
'I went to jail and met my father to convince him to join politics and believe in the Constitution.'
Terming the bi-annual shifting of state capital as a "necessary evil", Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Monday advocated a reverse 'darbar move' so that the government stays with the people when they are facing hardships due to extreme weather.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Monday wondered where have the Indian troops withdrawn to after the Chinese troops ended their incursions in Ladakh after 19 days.
'The Indian embassy did send a bus to evacuate us along with an Indian embassy official, but Urmia University is not giving us permission to leave.'
Home Minister P Chidambaram made a special request to the Bharatiya Janata Party central leadership and its legislature party in Jammu and Kashmir to attend the prime minister's meeting convened to discuss the situation in the state.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced that two more constituents of the Jammu and Kashmir-based Hurriyat Conference, J&K Tahreeqi Isteqlal and J&K Tahreek-I-Istiqamat, have abandoned separatism and pledged allegiance to the new India envisioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This development follows similar declarations from the Jammu and Kashmir People's Movement (JKPM) and the Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Political Movement (JKDPM) on Tuesday. Shah stated that under Modi's leadership, separatism is on the decline and the unity of India is growing stronger in Kashmir.
Drones were sighted and explosions were heard in Jammu and Kashmir on Friday, a day after India thwarted attempts by the Pakistan military to attack Indian military installations using drones and missiles. The drones were also engaged in Udhampur and Nagrota of Jammu and Punjab. Heavy cross-border shelling started along the International Border in Suchetgarh and Ramgarh sectors of Jammu and Samba districts. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah appealed to residents to stay indoors and ignore rumors.
After record rains wreaked havoc in Jammu and Kashmir over the past two days, the death toll in related incidents rose to 41, most of them victims of the landslide on a Vaishno Devi pilgrimage route, while there was some let-up in the showers on Wednesday, allowing relief efforts to pick up pace.
Home Minister P Chidambaram on Wednesday said the efforts of Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah are to denotify the Disturbed Areas from some places in the state, a move which will pave way for removal of Armed Forces Special Powers Act.
The Congress on Wednesday expelled former Madhya Pradesh MLA Laxman Singh, who is brother of ex-chief minister Digvijaya Singh, from the primary membership of the party for six years for 'anti-party activities'.
Stung by the death of a student in north Kashmir, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Wednesday directed the power development department to put in all efforts to mitigate the hardships faced by the people in the valley owing to power shortage.
Relentless heavy rain led to a landslide on the route to the Mata Vaishno Devi shrine atop the Trikuta hill on Tuesday afternoon, killing at least five people and injuring 14, officials said.
Lal Chowk in the heart of Srinagar was Kashmir's leading venue for protests where fortified defences had been set up by security forces. Today a group of youngsters dances at the Chowk and makes reels.
After the Chenab bridge, Modi also inaugurated India's first cable-stayed rail bridge over the river Anji. The prime minister then walked on the Chenab rail bridge holding the tricolour.
Clearing all confusion, National Conference patron Farooq Abdullah on Monday said he would recommend to his party that his son Omar Abdullah should be the new chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir. His remarks assume significance in the wake of his statement on Sunday night that he would like to be the chief minister, which created confusion.
'Kashmir needs to be divided and we need the land of Panun Kashmir in Kashmir.'
Abdullah, the Lok Sabha MP from Srinagar, is the first Jammu and Kashmir chief minister to be booked under the PSA.
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