Moderate All Parties Hurriyat Conference Chairman Mirwaiz Moulvi Umar Farooq on Friday confirmed that Dileep Padgaonkar, veteran journalist and one of the interlocutors appointed by the Centre for Kashmir, had called him for a meeting. "Dileep Padgaonkar called me on Thursday and requested a meeting, which I declined. I told Padgaonkar that it was our stand not to meet them as long as our demands are not met," the Mirwaiz said.
Army Chief General V K Singh said the legal system in Jammu and Kashmir was under "various pressures" that leave a question mark over the process.
Engineers have been rushed in a special flight, which is expected to land at the airport on Monday afternoon to repair the damage and make it airworthy.
Jammu and Kashmir can boast of having the world's tallest bridge after the construction of the Chenab bridge in Reasi district by Indian Railways. "The Chenab Bridge, linking Kauri and Bakkal hamlets in Reasi district. will have a height of 359 m above the bed of Chenab," deputy chief engineer (DCE) Konkan Railways, Ishwar Chand said.
The separatists should shun their prejudices and understand that by coming forward and talking to the interlocutors, and the Centre, a lasting solution can be found to the vexed issue," Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Ali Mohammad Sagar said.
The Jammu and Kashmir high court has restrained the authorities from deporting an aged Pakistani national, who came to his native Pekhri village in Samba district recently on a cross Line of Control permit issued by the Pakistan government, till further orders.The order was passed by Justice Mansoor Ahmed Mir in a petition filed by 83-year-old Hashmat Ali, who had migrated to Pakistan in 1947 and did not want to return.
The moderate faction of the Hurriyat Conference decided on Sunday, not to meet the interlocutors appointed by the Centre for Jammu and Kashmir, saying such an exercise was aimed at keeping the issue lingering.
Jammu and Kashmir government on Tuesday started the process of removing 16 security bunkers from Srinagar city as part of the Centre's peace initiatives to reach out to the people of the Valley.
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.
Pakistani troops on Tuesday violated the ceasefire along the Line of Control in Uri Sector of Jammu and Kashmir by firing rockets, resulting in the death of three civilians, including two children. "Pakistani troops fired two 80mm rockets in an unprovoked ceasefire violation at Lambardar village in Uri sector of Baramulla district," official sources said.
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.
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.
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.
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.
"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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Chairman of the moderate All Parties Hurriyat Conference, Mirwaiz Moulvi Umar Farooq rejected the report saying 'it is wastage of time'.
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.
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.
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.
Unidentified persons looted two automatic rifles from a police post guarding minority community in Padguchi village of south Kashmir Shopian district on Friday afternoon.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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