People's Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti and several other regional party leaders on Monday claimed that they have been placed under house arrest on the fifth anniversary of the reading down of Article 370 of the Constitution that provided special status to Jammu and Kashmir.
The sons of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin, Syed Ahmad Shakeel and Syed Shahid Yusuf, have challenged a rule in the Delhi Prison Rules that bars those accused of offences against the state, terrorist activities, and other heinous crimes from using telephonic and electronic communication facilities. The two prisoners, currently lodged in different Delhi jails, are seeking restoration of their phone call facilities, alleging that the restrictions are arbitrary and unreasonable. The Delhi High Court has posted the matter for further hearing on May 22.
Pakistan military spokesperson Lieutenant General Ahmad Sharif Chaudhry told a hurriedly called press conference in Islamabad at around 4 am that th Pakistan air force's Nur Khan (Chaklala, Rawalpindi), Murid (Chakwal) and Rafiqui (Shorkot in Jhang district) airbases were targeted.
In a post on X, the additional directorate general of public information posted: "Pakistan again violates the Ceasefire Agreement by firing artillery in Bhimber Gali in the Poonch-Rajouri area. Indian Army is responding appropriately in a calibrated manner."
People's Democratic Party MLA Waheed Para on Monday moved a resolution in the Jammu and Kashmir assembly opposing the abrogation of Article 370 and calling for the restoration of special status to the erstwhile state, leading to noisy scenes in the House.
Hours after being dismissed from service for 'concealing' his marriage with a Pakistani woman, Central Reserve Police Force trooper Munir Ahmed said he solemnised his marriage nearly a month after getting permission from the force's headquarters last year.
'Had Haji Pir and/or Skardu been taken, the message would have gone out not just to General Asim Munir and his cohort in the Pakistan army but to the Pakistani people that every terrorist incident in India would lead to substantial loss of territory in PoK.'
One Pakistan terrorist belonging to the Lashkar-e-Taiba has been gunned down in the ongoing encounter.
'It was inspired by the Hamas attack and was like their attack -- well planned and well executed.'
'These statements which you are telling me were never uttered from mosques on that day.' 'And if this had happened, I would have got the report as the chief secretary of J&K.'
'The BJP claims they have eight lakh cadres in the Kashmir Valley so why can't they contest elections from Kashmir?'
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Nagrota MLA Devender Singh Rana, brother of Union minister Jitendra Singh, died on Thursday at a private hospital in Haryana's Faridabad. He was 59.
The PDP looks a distant third in the race, observes Mohammed Sayeed Malik, the distinguished commentator on Kashmir politics.
Father of martyred Army captain Brijesh Thapa on Tuesday said he was proud of his son who was killed in action while fighting terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir's Doda.
Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com tried to buy a house on his recent visit to Srinagar.
'If, as happened in Baramulla during the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the youth in the Valley get triggered enough to jump into the wider fray, the end result would be difficult to predict, especially as the state's post-August 5, 2019 political format remains substantially fragmented and foggy,' points out Mohammad Sayeed Malik, the veteran commentator on Kashmir affairs.
The government may have to move 18 amendments to the Constitution to implement the concept of simultaneous elections as recommended by a high-level committee chaired by former president Ram Nath Kovind.
The principal opposition party though appeared content securing 99 of the 543 seats in the 2024 national elections as against its all-time low of 44 in 2014 and then 52 in 2019.
Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar on Friday expressed anguish over Leader of the Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge trooping into the Well of the House during an opposition protest, saying it is for the first time that a person occupying the post has engaged in such conduct.
Such a course would require a Constitutional Amendment, requiring a two-thirds majority in both Houses of Parliament. Even assuming that the INDIA combine comes to power at the Centre next year, a two-thirds majority in the Lok Sabha could way off the mark for them, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Terrorists active in Jammu and Kashmir will either land in jail or be sent to jahannum (hell), Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai said in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday while asserting that the Modi government has zero tolerance for terrorism.
'This verdict means that if there is presidential rule anywhere in any state of India, that state can be dismembered and from a state can be downgraded to a Union territory.'
National Conference leader Omar Abdullah was sworn in as the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday, the first elected government in the Union Territory since 2019 when Article 370 was abrogated.
The only occasion when the BJP had 100 seats in the Upper House was in 2022.
There is a limit to ignoring genuine aspirations of the people and suppressing their legitimate voice in running the affairs of the state, notes Mohammad Sayeed Malik, the distinguished commentator on Kashmir affairs.
Rajnath came down heavily on the National Conference-Congress alliance over its poll promise of restoring Article 370 and said it is impossible as long as the BJP is there.
'I want to ask the Congress only one question: What is more important than election management in politics?'
The abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019 paved the way for outsiders to contest polls in the Union Territory.
'If democracy does not exist, if there are no political spaces, there is no media, there is no civil society, what do we rejoice?'
The Ladakh-based innovator had announced a five-day long hunger strike at 18,380 feet high Khardung La from January 26 to invite attention of the BJP-led Centre to the demands of the people of Ladakh.
Its workers are on their toes to win over the voters once again, with idea of 'Amrit Kaal'.
For far too long, people in J&K have felt the government doesn't exist for them.' 'My first priority is to make them feel that not only does it exist, it is there to work for them.
'There is no peace in the Kashmir Valley.'
'If you post on social media on an issue like power cuts in Tral, the police will come to your home and tell you to remove your social media post.' 'If you don't, then the local police threaten you that they will book you under PSA.' 'This is happening all the time in Kashmir.'
The operation to neutralise the terrorists involved in the encounter that led to the killing of four security forces personnel continued for the second day on Thursday as the police claimed to have "encircled" two Lashkar-e-Tayiba terrorists in the higher reaches of Anantnag district of south Kashmir.
The wife of alleged conman Kiran Patel, who was held in Jammu and Kashmir for posing as a top official in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), was arrested on Tuesday for trying to usurp a senior citizen's bungalow in Ahmedabad, officials said.
Authorities on Monday attached a house belonging to Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin's son in the city's Ram Bagh area, officials said.
The ultras fired on Ghulam Rasool Dar, also the Kulgam district president of the BJP's Kisan Morcha, and his wife in Anantnag town in south Kashmir, a police official said.
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam MP D N V Senthil Kumar on Wednesday apologised in the Lok Sabha for his controversial 'north-south divide' remark which had sparked a backlash.
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