Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday announced that the Gujjar, Bakerwal and Pahari communities in Jammu and Kashmir will get reservation benefits in accordance with the recommendations of the Justice Sharma Commission which examined the issue of quota.
Pakistan-based militant groups, including the Lashkar-e-Tayiba, are pondering a new, friendly policy on Kashmir in the wake of mounting pressure on Pakistan following the Mumbai terror attacks, a media report in Pakistan claimed on Thursday. Senior leaders of the LeT and the United Jehad Council, a conglomerate of terrorist groups active in Jammu and Kashmir, are reassessing their policy in the aftermath of the November 26 terror strikes, the News daily said.
Former Army Chief V K Singh on Wednesday failed to appear before the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Council for a second time in connection with the privilege motion against him even as the Assembly rejected his plea for quashing it.
Pakistan has once again raised the Kashmir issue at the UNSC, seeking mediation from the world body and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation to resolve the issue.
To support the widows and orphaned children of the killed ultras, Jammu and Kashmir Council for Rehabilitation of Militancy Victims on Thursday widened its area of action and included dependants of militants killed over 15 years
The Pakistan foreign minister has called for the expansion of the UN peacekeepers' role in Kashmir.
The Lahore high court has dismissed a writ petition by Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief and 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed seeking to direct the Pakistan government to raise the Kashmir issue at the UN Security Council and other international fora.
'Once the violence is contained, the politicians must play their role, but unfortunately that is not happening.'
Pakistan on Thursday said India's stand that the Simla Agreement of 1972 supersedes earlier United Nations resolutions on Kashmir is not legally tenable even as it sought "serious negotiations" on all outstanding disputes.
'This action sends out a very nasty message in a very strong way -- that nobody is exempt.' 'It is also an attempt to extend the definition of who is an anti-national, who's a terrorist, a definition that's becoming looser under this regime.' 'The sad part is that by the time the courts acquit those arrested, they would've spent years in jail and been taught a lesson.'
'It will be foolhardy to overlook that this stunning shift in China's stance comes as the culmination of the severely damaged India-China relationship under the present government,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Sharif met US Secretary of State John Kerry in New York during which he raised the Kashmir issue.
Pakistan's parliament has unanimously passed a resolution, condemning the alleged human rights violations in Kashmir.
BJP president Amit Shah is chairing the meeting attended by top party leaders from across the country.
Pakistan has rejected India's stance on occupied Kashmir, saying the dispute over the region was a result of New Delhi's refusal to implement the relevant UN Security Council resolutions.
Addressing the Inter-State Council meeting, convened after a gap of 10 years, the Prime Minister told the chief ministers that "we should focus on how we can make our country prepared to counter challenges to our internal security".
"Kashmir was main cause of unrest in the region and India must show seriousness for resolution of the issue and honour its commitment under United Nations Security Council Resolutions," Sharif was quoted as saying by Associated Press of Pakistan.
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Pakistan's powerful Army Chief Gen Raheel Sharif has described Kashmir as the "jugular vein" of his country, saying the issue should be resolved in accordance with the wishes of Kashmiris and in line with UNSC resolutions for lasting peace in the region.
United States Congressman Joseph Pitts, a seven-term Republican representing Pennsylvania, has declared that there can be no military solution to the Kashmir imbroglio, and called on President Barack Obama to keep his campaign pledge to help resolve this dispute between India and Pakistan.
Editor of a local Urdu daily has been arrested in Srinagar in a nearly three-decade-old terror-related case.
'It is time India withdraws the complaint from the UN and fully integrates the state of J&K into the Indian Union,' recommends Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
China on Thursday voiced its opposition to India's reported plans to hold the next year's meeting of G-20 leaders in Jammu and Kashmir.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday said there was no possibility of Pakistan winning any war against India in his "lifetime".
Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has expressed his desire for peaceful relations with India based on the principles of 'equity, justice and mutual respect' and the resolution of the Kashmir issue, according to a media report on Friday.
References to freedom fighter and India's first education minister Maulana Abul Kalam Azad have been removed from the new class 11 political science textbook by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT).
Gandhi, who is currently on a tour of the Union Territory of Ladakh, covered a distance of about 130 km to reach Lamayuru where he will stay overnight before moving to Zanskar, a tehsil of Kargil district, on Wednesday. He will be in Kargil town on Thursday.
'There is a problem with the rise of a popular view that sees Kashmir through the prism of the larger, chronic Hindu-Muslim tensions.' 'By redefining the Kashmir problem simplistically in Hindu-Muslim terms could end up keeping Kashmir but losing most Kashmiris,' says Shekhar Gupta.
'If India does venture across the LoC, it will evoke a strong response.'
Ten days after Hizbul Mujahideen leader Burhan Wani was eliminated by the armed forces, Kashmir continues to see massive unrest, with the violence claiming over 40 lives.
'Is Trump going to play a mediating role? Can he play a mediating role? It's out of the question.' 'Kashmir is an Indian responsibility.'
The Union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh are and will always remain an integral and inalienable part of India, the MEA said.
China is providing tacit support to Pakistan in its jihadi strategy with an aim to pin down half a million Indian troops in Kashmir, a leading European security expert has said.
Pakistan on Thursday asked the world community to play its role in the peaceful resolution of the Kashmir issue, saying it wants to resolve it in a peaceful manner and through result-oriented and sustained dialogue.
'This was the worst phase yet in the state's human rights history.' 'Notorious interrogation centres were set up, large numbers died in firing on civilian mobs.' 'This is what today's generations might identify better as the Haider phase in Kashmir's history,' says Shekhar Gupta.
Hardening its stance further, India has once again virtually rejected Pakistan's latest invitation for talks on Kashmir.
Police said a patrol party of the 32 Rashtriya Rifles was attacked by militants with automatic weapons at village Gund Karim Khan, 63 km from Srinagar in north Kashmir's Baramulla district on Thursday morning. A JCO and a soldier were killed on the spot.
The Bihar Education Project Council, which was conducting the examinations, later acknowledged the error and expressed an apology.
UJC is a conglomerate of various militant groups Kashmir headed by Syed Salah-ud-Din, supreme commander of the frontline militant group, Hizbul Mujaheedin.
'As long as Pakistan exists, the situation will not stabilise and violence is bound to erupt from time to time.' 'Though not a final solution, a step that could help localise the abscess -- trifurcate Jammu and Kashmir state into three parts: Jammu, Ladakh and the Valley.'
