Opposition People's Democratic Party on Thursday said it will boycott the entire summer session of the Jammu and Kashmir legislative assembly to protest the deteriorating law and order situation in the Valley, in which over 100 people have died and thousands have been injured."We will not attend the rest of the session of the assembly as a mark of protest against the killings and solidarity with the people," PDP president Mehbooba Mufti said in the assembly.
Pakistan on Tuesday called on India to 'review the practice' of describing Jammu and Kashmir as its 'integral part' of its territory, even as Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani flayed the alleged human rights violations in the Valley. "Indians should quit the policy of finding a solution to the Kashmir issue under their constitution and they should review the practice of calling (Jammu and) Kashmir an integral part of India," Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit said.
The Centre will extend invitation to groups and individuals, including separatists in Jammu and Kashmir for a meeting with the 39-member all-party delegation visiting the state from Monday.
It's been two months since the doctors staged their first protest.
The villager who gave the tip-off to the army about an underground tunnel dug from Pakistan along the International Border in Samba sector was on Thursday awarded Rs 5,100 cash by the Jammu and Kashmir government.
The Jammu and Kashmir police has formed a Special Investigation Team to probe the terrorist-cop nexus unearthed recently.
Jammu and Kashmir Governor N N Vohra has accepted the resignation of Health Minister Shabir Ahmad Khan, who stepped down after he was accused of molestation by a local doctor.
The Jammu and Kashmir government on Wednesday sent a detailed report to the Centre on the controversial release of separatist leader Masarat Alam, a day after Bharatiya Janata Party sent a stern message to its alliance partner Peoples Democratic Party.
The Central government has said there are reliable reports to suggest that anti-national elements are trying to exploit the situation in Jammu and Kashmir.
The Jammu and Kashmir Police has sought the custody of an army colonel, a major and four others for custodial interrogation in the alleged fake encounter of three youth in Machil sector in frontier district of Kupwara in April this year.
"It (JeI's statement) is a very valid thing. Islam seeks such a society where human values are respected, where modesty is upheld, where semi-naked dresses are not worn, where alcohol and drugs are not promoted and where women and men do not mix," Geelani said.
Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, chairman of the moderate Hurriyat faction, was put under house arrest and prohibitory orders clamped in Srinagar on Saturday as separatists called a strike against the visit of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi to Jammu.They said the step was taken as a precautionary measure to prevent the Hurriyat leader from visiting Shopian, 55 kms from Srinagar, to take part in a protest to mark the first anniversary of the alleged rape and murder of two young women.
Separatists from Kashmir valley on Tuesday met Pakistan Foreign Secretary Jalil Abbas Gilani and were divided on the dialogue process between India and Pakistan with moderates terming it as necessary for building 'mutual trust' while hardliners dubbed it as a 'futile exercise'.
"The infiltrators were challenged to surrender after they were surrounded upon which they opened fire at the troops leading to an encounter, which has now ended. All the three infiltrators were killed," Lt Col J S Brar told rediff.com.
The army on Wednesday apprehended a Lashkar-e-Tayiba activist in the Mendhar area of district Poonch while he was trying to cross over to India. Mukhtiar Ahmed, who originally hails from Surankot area, had crossed over to Pakistan in 2002 and joined LeT there, officials said.
A plan for providing effective healthcare facilities for children, including construction of a 200-bed hospital, is pending before the Medical Education Department in Jammu and Kashmir, where over 1,400 children deaths have been reported since January last year.
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.
Chairman of the moderate All Parties Hurriyat Conference, Mirwaiz Moulvi Umar Farooq rejected the report saying 'it is wastage of time'.
Authorities at the Rozabal shrine in Jammu and Kashmir's Khanyar district have banned foreigners from visiting the shrine after a sudden flurry of interest in the medieval tomb. The surge is being linked to rumours that Jesus Christ survived the Crucifixion and traveled later to Jammu and Kashmir, and his remains were still there in the Rozabal shrine.
Ruling out a return to the pre-1953 position, Centre's interlocutors on Jammu and Kashmir have favoured setting up a Constitutional Committee to review all Central Acts and Articles of the Constitution of India to the state extended after 1952.
A top commander of the Hizbul Mujahideen outfit was killed in a fierce gunfight in south Kashmir's Batpora village, 35 kms away from Srinagar, on Saturday evening.A senior police officer said troops of Rashtriya Rifles, Central Reserve Police Force and the state police jointly surrounded a house in Batpora village, after receiving information about the presence of a group of militants inside.
R K Birdi, the Border Security Force (BSF) commanding officer, arrested in connection with the killing of a 17-year-old schoolboy was remanded in 10-day judicial custody on Saturday.
Unidentified persons looted two automatic rifles from a police post guarding minority community in Padguchi village of south Kashmir Shopian district on Friday afternoon.
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.
The encounter broke out after terrorists hiding in a house opened indiscriminate fire on a joint search party of police and security forces at Khodwani, 70 km from Srinagar, police said.
Amid continuing suspense over formation of new government in Jammu and Kashmir, Governor N N Vohra on Friday invited the People's Democratic Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party, the first and second largest parties in the elections, which threw up a highly-fractured verdict with no clear winner.
Border Security Force has identified one of its personnel involved in the killing of a 16-year-old boy last week that had sparked protests in the Kashmir Valley.
The kidnapping and subsequent killing of the four foreign hostages has attracted fresh attention following the recent release of a book 'The Meadow, Kashmir 1995 -Where the terror began' and the revelations made therein.
'A war is being fought in South Kashmir.' 'Do not underestimate your enemy, be sensible and cautious and be prepared for the worst if you choose to move in the region unprotected,' advises Sanjeev Nayyar.
To effectively deal with the law and order situation, the Jammu and Kashmir government announced the carving out of a separate police district in north Kashmir Sopore town.
Cross-border infiltration into Jammu and Kashmir is on the rise with terrorists making 433 such attempts this year, nearly 90 more than last year.
Accusing the government of engaging in a 'game of quiet diplomacy' with certain groups in Jammu and Kashmir, a Bharatiya Janata Party Member of Parliament on Monday claimed it was playing into their hands by withdrawing 30,000 troops from the state. BJP leader S S Ahluwalia said during Zero Hour in Rajya Sabha that a 'game of quiet diplomacy is being played with certain groups'. Without naming the separatists, the BJP leader said, "There are secret meetings held with them."
Jammu and Kashmir government said Monday that 304 cases of various nature have been registered across the state against personnel of the security forces including those from the local police during the last three years.
Security forces killed two terrorist 'commanders' of the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen in a fierce gunbattle in Doda district of Jammu and Kashmir, the police said on Monday.
Union Home Secretary G K Pillai on Saturday visited border areas of Suchetgarh and Abdullian in Jammu region to review situation along the International Border.
Leaders of the pro-dialogue moderate All Parties Hurriyat Conference including the conglomerate chairman, Mirwaiz Moulvi Umar Farooq, were placed under house arrest on Thursday by the authorities in Srinagar to thwart the proposed march and sit-in by them on World Human Rights Day.Almost all the senior separatist leaders of the moderate group, including Mirwaiz himself, professor Abdul Gani Bhat, Shabir Shah, Naeem Ahmad Khan were placed under house arrest.
Terrorist outfit Al-Nasireen, which has owned responsibility for the attack on Hurriyat leader Fazal Haq Qureshi, warned pro-dialogue leaders on Wednesday to desist from quiet talks with New Delhi or else face the consequences.
Jammu and Kashmir politicians have welcomed the Union home minister's decision to possibly reduce the number of troops in the state.
The government on Wednesday announced withdrawal of a 'significant' number of battalions of the Central forces from Jammu and Kashmir in a noteworthy confidence- building measure following the initiative for holding 'quiet' dialogue with the separatist groups.
After raising India's heckles by issuing visas in a separate sheet of paper to several residents of Jammu and Kashmir, China issued a visa stamped on passport to former Jammu University vice chancellor Amitabh Mattoo, a domicile of the state, who visited the neighbouring country. Mattoo, who had applied for a visa in the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi to attend an international conference on nuclear disarmament in China in November, had been given a regular stamped visa.