'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.
A huge cache of arms, ammunition and explosives were recovered in the Kashmir Valley and three militant sympathisers were also arrested in separate operations, officials said on Tuesday.
Militancy has shown a downward trend by over 30 per cent in Jammu and Kashmir as 389 persons were killed in the state till August this year against 527 last year.
A high alert was sounded in Jammu with authorities suspecting the presence of more militants after four infiltrators were killed by security forces during a 19-hour hostage drama.
Nearly 450 militants from various training camps and launching pads across the Line of Control are waiting to infiltrate into Jammu and Kashmir, the Army said on Tuesday. "As per intelligence reports, there are about 42 training camps across the LoC. Nearly 450 odd terrorists are lodged in camps and launching pads, and staged for infiltration," General Officer Commanding, 25 Infantry Division, Major General Om Prakash told reporters.
The party has taken a very serious view of the party candidate getting just four votes while seven other MLAs voted for other parties' candidates, party spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad told media persons on Friday.
The first phase of the Panchayat polls in Jammu and Kashmir passed off peacefully without any incident on Wednesday. The authorities had made elaborate security arrangements for today's polls during which people exhibited enthusiasm in electing the representatives at the village level.
China on Wednesday dropped broad hints at reversing its two-year-old practice of issuing stapled visas to people hailing from Jammu and Kashmir, saying it was willing to work with India to resolve issues related with people to people exchanges. "You can watch closely and you can come to a conclusion yourself," China's Ambassador to India Zhang Yan told reporters. He was replying to a question on whether China had relaxed its practice of giving visas on loose sheets of paper.
The first phase of the multi-phased Panchayat elections in Jammu and Kashmir is set to get underway on Wednesday morning, offering another opportunity to the electorate of the state to choose their representatives at the local level.
China appears to have relaxed its practice of giving stapled visas to people hailing from Jammu and Kashmir as it has given proper pasted visas to four journalists from the state.The journalists are part of the media delegation that will travel with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday to Sanya in China for the Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa Summit.China had in 2008 started the practice of issuing visas on loose sheets of paper to people from Jammu and Kashmir.
J K Rowling, author of the best-selling Harry Potter book series, delivered a commencement address at the Annual Meeting of the Harvard Alumni Association
The Hardline Hurriyat Conference on Tuesday alleged that the statements made by Union Defence Minister A K Antony and a senior army commander in the Kashmir Valley were an indication that the Centre was planning to settle the armed forces permanently in Jammu and Kashmir.
A police official, an army trooper and a top militant commander were killed in a fierce gunfight at Dadsara village near the south Kashmir's Tral town in Pulwama district, 30 km from Srinagar.
Over 50 youths have been arrested for allegedly being involved in stone-pelting during protests that rocked parts of the Kashmir valley following execution of Parliament attack convict Mohammad Afzal Guru.
The three-member panel of interlocutors on Kashmir met the families of the two sisters killed by terrorists in north Kashmir's Sopore town and a youth killed in an army ambush in Chogal village in Handwara town on Thursday.
Three senior separatist leaders along with pro-independence Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front chairman Yasin Malik and their 13 supporters were detained by the state police on Wednesday as they tried to march towards Lal Chowk to hoist the party flag on clock tower.
'Romeo Force', the Army's counter insurgency group, has organised workshops in the remote areas of Poonch district for students of class 10 and 12, to train them on how to identify various explosive devices and undertake safety measures to save lives. A variety of Improvised Explosive Devices, landmines and grenades, made by militants to trigger blasts, were on display at the workshops, in which over 200 students from various schools of Poonch district participated.
The professor of a government college in Srinagar was arrested by the Jammu and Kashmir police on Friday evening for setting a question paper 'with anti-India content'.The lecturer, Noor Mohammad Bhat, who teaches English in Gandhi Memorial College was picked up by the police after the authorities learnt about the contents of the paper which the lecturer had set for first-year students.The college teacher was picked up by the police from his downtown residence on Friday.
Union Home Minister P Chidambaram said the contours of a political solution to the Kashmir problem were expected to emerge in the next few months.
A magisterial probe ordered into the killing of a 13-year-old boy in the city that triggered protests earlier this year has found prima facie involvement of a Jammu and Kashmir police official in the incident. Judicial Magistrate Massarat Shaheen in the report submitted to Srinagar Chief Judicial Magistrate has maintained that prima facie the accused Abdul Khaliq (assistant sub-inspector of police) has committed the offence which is punishable under the Ranbir Penal Code.
The clarification follows a hard-hitting statement by the sitting ruling National Conference MP Sharief-ud-Din Shariq that 'the three had been murdered in cold blood'.
Shabir Shah, senior separatist leader and chairman of the Democratic Freedom Party, on Monday laid down some conditions before the DFP joins a front representing all the moderate separatist parties in Kashmir. Shah was responding to the call for unity by Mirwaiz Moulvi Umar Farooq, chairman of the moderate All Parties Hurriyat Conference. Farooq had asked all separatist parties to unite under the aegis of a common banner.
The Jammu and Kashmir high court has held that a Muslim man's power to divorce his wife is not "unrestricted or unqualified". Justice Hasnain Masoodi in his 23-page judgment extensively went into details of the Shariah law and Koranic injunctions to hold that a "husband cannot have unrestricted or unqualified power to pronounce the Talaaq."
Hardline Hurriyat Conference leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani on Thursday threatened to launch an agitation after Eid against the plans to construct a road to Amarnath shrine in south Kashmir.
The Jammu and Kashmir government has sought sanction from the Centre for the prosecution of armymen under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act in 41 cases of human rights violation in the state. "The Jammu and Kashmir home department has sought sanction from the central government for the prosecution of army personnel under AFSPA in 41 cases since 1990," a senior army officer of Northern Command told PTI. A total of 41 cases have been received by the central government.
A dialogue with Pakistan is as necessary as the dialogue with people of Jammu and Kashmir to resolve the Kashmir issue which is a "bilateral dispute", Centre-appointed interlocutor Dileep Padgaonkar said on Sunday.
The Jammu and Kashmir government on Thursday said over 200 temples in the Valley have suffered damage over the years but there were no encroachments on temple land. In a written reply to Member of Legislative Assembly Chaman Lal Gupta's question in the state assembly, the government said 208 of the 438 temples in the Valley had been damaged over the years.
Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has taken a dig at the media for highlighting trivial issues in their race for news and ignoring developmental issues in the state.
The National Conference on Thursday ruled out resignation by beleaguered Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah as he got backing from Congress leader Rahul Gandhi who said he was doing a "tough job" and needed "time and support".
Seven terrorists were killed in two separate encounters with security forces in Pulwama and Bandipora districts of Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday, a defence spokesman said.
A junior commissioned officer and two militants were killed in a fierce gunfight at Garoora, a forest hamlet in north Kashmir's Bandipore district, early on Thursday morning.
Seven terrorists and an army trooper were killed in two separate anti-militancy operations in Kashmir Valley on Monday.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohmmad Sayeed on Monday said his government will proceed with phased removal of AFSPA after consulting the Army as they have aired their apprehension over it.
In an effort to stop intrusion in the state, the Army has re-aligned the fence along the Line of Control (LoC) at Chapriyan village in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district, giving the residents an 'inherent' sense of security.
The flashfloods inundated the low-lying areas and submerged the ground floor of the houses in the villages. A large number of livestock were drowned and standing crops were destroyed.
A top militant commander of frontline Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) outfit was killed in a fierce gunfight in the Gurura village of northern Kashmir Bandipore district Monday morning.
Local body elections in Jammu and Kashmir will be held as per schedule in October and the state government will make every effort to reduce the "influence of the gun", Chief Minister Omar Abdullah told an all-party meeting to discuss the situation in the state. During the meeting called by Omar yesterday, leaders of various political parties expressed their support to the Chief Minister in restoring peace in the Valley, sources said.
Political parties in Jammu and Kashmir urged the Centre to strengthen the ongoing peace process through internal and external dialogue at an all-party meeting held in Srinagar on Monday.
