Kashmir remained on the edge with six more persons, including a cop getting killed in violence on Sunday.
Kashmiris hope that India and Pakistan can find a lasting solution to what many call the Kashmir 'problem'.
Sayeed said said such attacks would not deter the people from pursuing the path of peace and the process of dialogue and reconciliation would be carried forward.
'Collateral damage during operations needs to be avoided.' 'Such an objective can be achieved more easily should stone throwers not gear up to en masse oppose security forces.' 'With the conditions being quite sensitive at this stage, the death of one of these boys could easily serve the terrorists in instigating violence,' notes Brigadier S K Chatterji (retd).
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is expected to announce a package for border districts of Jammu and Kashmir when he travels there on Tuesday along with United Progressive Alliance Chairperson Sonia Gandhi on a two-day visit.
'As of now, it seems like they want to tread the Vajpayee line, but the central government has to create trust.' 'It has to be vibrant and unambiguous.'
'...Else we will let the situation develop to a dangerous level where much greater violence will be the only outcome,' says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
As Azad ended his decades-old association with the party, leaders across political spectrum praised his contribution to Jammu and Kashmir, with the BJP hailing him as a "towering leader".
In the wake of 73 confirmed cases of coronavirus in India so far, the Union health ministry has made functional 52 laboratories for testing samples while 57 labs have been designated for helping in sample collection for Covid-19 to enhance capacity for diagnosis and detection of the disease. "Following the increase in load of screening samples from suspected cases with symptoms and travel history to the affected countries, the department of health research/ICMR has commissioned 52 laboratories for COVID-19 testing in India," an official said.
The education sector has been badly hit in Kashmir Valley during the five-month-long unrest, causing "irreversible loss" to students, the Economic Survey Report has said.
Raising slogans against Lt Governor Manoj Sinha and the administration, the demonstrators, mostly government employees posted in the troubled valley and their kin, demanded that they be provided adequate security or be transferred to Jammu. The employees also threatened en masse resignation from their jobs.
Curfew remained in force on Thursday in parts of Kashmir valley as a preventive measure to maintain law and order after a youth was killed when security forces allegedly opened fire to chase away stone-pelting protesters.
A unanimous statement of the delegation appealed to the people of the state to shun the path of violence and resolve all the issues through dialogue and discussion.
'As of now, this one move seems to have precariously altered the balance of forces on the volatile ground, between separatists and the mainstream. 'The landscape today presents a fearsome picture of the future of mainstream politics in Kashmir. 'Conversely, the separatist ideology looks to have got an unearned boost,' points out Mohammad Sayeed Malik, the veteran commentator on Kashmir affairs
The defence ministry said Maharashtra was voted as the best tableau among the states/union territories in the popular choice category.
'It is flabbergasting to think that this heavenly region has, for decades, been coveted by India's aggressive neighbours,' says Claude Arpi after a recent visit to Ladakh. 'Wanting to use the newly created infrastructure to defend the borders after the clash of 2020 with China and the resulting standoffs, the home ministry is keen to boost border tourism to show that these areas are controlled by India.'
A special court in Srinagar on Monday framed charges against eight persons, including a prominent Hurriyat leader, for selling Pakistani MBBS seats in Jammu and Kashmir to fund terror activities.
Earlier this month, a controversy had erupted over the reduction of syllabus by the Central Board of Secondary Education due to the COVID-19 situation, with the Opposition alleging that chapters on India's democracy and plurality are being "dropped" to propagate a particular ideology.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled central government alleging that there were attempts to suppress the cause of the train accident in Odisha.
Airtel said it will implement 25 per cent more stringent mobile call drop benchmark of 1.5 per cent versus 2 per cent prescribed by the regulator Trai.
A PAGD leader said the meeting was held at the residence of alliance chairperson and National Conference president Farooq Abdullah at the Gupkar locality of Srinagar.
He emphasised that if any life is lost in Kashmir, whether of any youth or any security personnel, 'that loss is ours, of our own country'.
Environmental activist and educator Sonam Wangchuk said democracy has been compromised in Ladakh and the local people have no say in decision-making.
This is the seventh consecutive day that Pakistan has targeted forward posts along the Line of Control (LoC).
The Union Cabinet also decided to promulgate an ordinance -- The Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Ordinance, 2019 -- to give reservation benefits to the people living along the International Border in Jammu and Kashmir, who often face shelling from across the border.
The report contains 58 case studies of alleged excesses by the armed forces in the state.
'Kashmir is complex, conflicted and unpredictable.' 'Take the instance of Handwara and the killings there.' 'The need of the hour is more one of restraint in the violent reactions of the armed forces.' 'But restraint is wanting in Kashmir for a quarter of a century now.'
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday warned that Bihar's areas close to the borders (seemant) will become 'infested with infiltrators' if Prime Minister Narendra Modi was not voted back to power.
Major General B S Raju said a full scale cordon-and-search operation, like the one conducted in Shopian recently, will be carried out only in places where the army's operations are hampered.
Militants snatched an automatic rifle along with a magazine from a cop and decamped with it in south Kashmir Pulwama town on Tuesday afternoon.
Opposing a dialogue with Pakistan till it stops 'exporting' terror into Jammu and Kashmir, a Bharatiya Janata Party delegation led by Jammu and Kashmir president Ravinder Raina at an all-party meet in New Delhi on Thursday said those seeking engagement with the neighbouring country should meet the victims of violence to understand their pain.
As part of the programme, 14 states have been identified in the first phase in which there are 64 districts.
The legislation was passed by 125 votes in favour and 61 against.
Bidyasagar Behera used to sell newspapers for a living. But that did not stop him from pursuing his education.
'Kashmir belongs to us all, even if we differ with each other.' 'Statesmanship demands that we sit together and let the left, right and centre of the political spectrum converge on the solution,' says former MP Tarun Vijay.
The Padma Bhushan was conferred on 17 personalities including N Chandrasekharan, chairman of Tata Sons, Krishna and Suchita Ella of Bharat Biotech, Cyrus Poonawalla, Satya Nadella, chairman of Microsoft, Sunder Pichai, chairman of Google.
A flood alert was sounded on Thursday in Srinagar city as River Jhelum was flowing four feet above the danger mark after incessant rain, while 23 villages have been inundated by floods in south Kashmir districts of Anantnag and Kulgam.
2016 saw the worst unrest in the Kashmir valley in 26 years.
They will enable the people to access and enjoy the same rights, same privileges and same facilities as their fellow citizens in the rest of the country, he said.
'Victory it was, but for the students, parents and society at large, who, together, showed that all was not lost, after all,' says Mohammad Sayeed Malik, the distinguished commentator on Kashmir affairs.
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