Priyanka Gandhi made a low-key visit to Kashmir during which she offered prayers at the Mata Kheer Bhawani shrine in Ganderbal district, officials said on Friday.
Reeling under strict restrictions with no access to communication since August 5 when the Centre announced its decision to end Jammu and Kashmir's special status under Article 370 and bifurcate the state into two union territories, the people in the Valley have been facing a hair-raising challenge of finding a hairdresser to have their unkempt beards trimmed and unruly locks chopped.
This is not the first time when she has been assigned such a tough task, earlier also, she had worked as IG, the Bihar sector in CRPF and has dealt with Naxals.
'The Indian Army is there to give a second chance to any youth who accepts his mistakes and wants to surrender and come back to the mainstream. We, the uniformed forces, are here to save lives and not to take lives. The system, the entire administration, will facilitate not only their surrender but also ensure that they are well integrated back into the mainstream,' Lt Gen Y K Joshi said.
A police spokesperson said two of the four recent cases of target killings in Srinagar and Bandipora have been solved with the elimination of the terrorists involved in these incidents.
A top Lashkar-e-Tayiba terrorist, believed to be nephew of the 2008 Mumbai attack mastermind Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, was on Thursday gunned down by security forces in an encounter in north Kashmir's Bandipora district.
According to new guidelines imposed by authorities on Sunday, shops have been allowed to open on alternate days.
Heavy snowfall has blanketed Kashmir, bringing relief to the residents from dry weather. The snowfall, which began in the late afternoon on Friday, has continued in most parts of the valley, said officials, adding it is one of the heaviest snowfalls in the recent years in the plains of Kashmir.
Police have filed a case against the army personnel, an official said, adding that records kept at a police station were also damaged.
The report published in the gazettes of India appeared in local newspapers on Monday and showed that Habba Kadal seat in Kashmir division and Suchetgarh seat in Jammu province had been restored.
An army official said the slain youths were "hardcore terrorists" who used a lot of ammunition and grenades against the security forces during the encounter.
'There is no point in just saying, 'hum wapas bhej denge (we will send Kashmiri Pandits back)'.'
Militants on Wednesday evening attacked the vehicle of the area station house officer with a powerful hand grenade that exploded injuring a cop in Lar village of north Kashmir's Ganderbal district.
The terrorists pumped bullets into the two troopers at close range before disappearing into the bylanes of the congested locality
The move comes in view of rising cases of the infection, weekly positivity rates and weekly deaths in some districts.
Omar Abdullah's nine-year old son Zahir, who accompanied his father on the victory lap in Ganderbal, instantly hit it off with the people, enjoying a new found celebrity status.
'Both sides have agreed that the overall situation should be handled in a responsible manner'
Omar, who began his political journey in the state from this assembly seat in 2002 elections, had been advised by some of his party men to choose another constituency in the backdrop of his previous poll debacle. National Conference had emerged as the largest party in the last polls with 28 seats in the 87-member House but chose to sit in opposition.
Amidst Covid scare, hundreds of pilgrims paid obeisance at the famous Ragnya Devi temple in Jammu and Kashmir's Ganderbal district on Friday for the annual Kheer Bhawani mela, praying for peace in the union territory and for the pandemic to end.
The BSF opened fire in Pakharpora near Charar-e-Sharif area to quell stone-pelting protesters in which at least one person was killed and five injured.
As many as 37 central ministers visited Jammu and Kashmir to assess the ground situation and interact with people on various development schemes. Over 30 of them have submitted their reports to the Home Ministry and those were forwarded to the PMO recently, a government official said.
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.
DNA test results have established that the two persons killed as foreign militants and buried in north Kashmir, Ganderbal police district, were actually local civilians.
Chinese troops have been camping in the Finger area for over three months now and have even started fortifying their bases there with construction of bunkers and sangars.
At least twelve persons, including ten security men were injured in clashes with security forces in Ganderbal, Bandipora, Srinagar and Baramulla districts as authorities detained separatist leader Mohammad Yasin Malik during protests against the recent killing of youths in CRPF firing in Shopian of Kashmir.
The stage is set for the first of the five-phased assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir as 12 sitting MLAs, including seven ministers, are among 123 candidates trying their luck in 15 constituencies that will go to polls on Tuesday in all three regions of the state.
The voter turnout in the first three phases of the civic polls in the valley has been low.
Among those abducted included brother of a deputy superintendent of police.
'India's behaviour violated agreements...It's a serious military provocation'
Threatened with contempt action against the Indian Army and its chief Manoj Mukund Naravane by the Supreme Court over non-compliance of its earlier orders, the defence force agreed on Friday to grant permanent commission to all of its eligible women officers.
The Indian troops deployed there are mentally prepared for tackling the weather and terrain. In contrast, the Chinese troops deployed along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) are not used to these conditions as they have been brought from mainland China and are not accustomed to high altitude extreme cold weather conditions.
Thousands of Kashmiri Pandits on Friday thronged the revered north Kashmir Khir Bhawani temple on the annual festival. The temple is located at Tullamulla, 26 kilometres from summer capital Srinagar in Ganderbal district.
Five soldiers were trapped at an Army post after multiple avalanches hit Batalik sector in Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir today, an Army official said.
Reasi district of Jammu region recorded 75.20 per cent voting, the highest in the union territory, State Election Commissioner (SEC) K K Sharma said, adding that 50.53 per cent voter turnout was recorded in the third phase of the maiden DDC polls in J-K.
Nearly half of all coronavirus patients in the country have been cured, taking the recovery rate to over 48 per cent.
36 Union ministers will visit different districts in both the divisions of the Union Territory starting from January 18 to January 24 and the home ministry is coordinating it, the sources said.
Security forces gunned down five militants in north Kashmir's Ganderbal district on Thursday night.
Looking into the current situation on the China boarder, IOC has stocked up enough winter-grade fuel for the region. With army movements increasing, the demand for this fuel is expected to increase multifold from the 350 metric tonnes last winter.
Ten soldiers were killed while several others are missing after two avalanches in Gurez Sector of Kashmir, an army official said on Thursday.
A rescue team recovered the body of Delhi resident Shailendra, 30, from the landslide-hit area along the Baltal route of the pilgrimage on Wednesday, a police official said.
