Congress leader Rahul Gandhi visited Poonch in Jammu and Kashmir, offering condolences to families affected by cross-border shelling and encouraging students who lost two classmates to the violence. During an hour-long visit, Gandhi met with students at the convent school that lost the twins, and visited families whose homes were damaged in the shelling.
Terrorists opened fire at a popular tourist spot near Kashmir's Pahalgam town on Tuesday afternoon, killing 26 people, mostly holidayers from other states, in what is the deadliest attack in the Valley since the Pulwama strike in 2019.
The Centre may be searching for a solution to the rising violence in Jammu and Kashmir, but on Thursday the young politicians of the country came up with an emotional response to the crisis by appealing to the angry youth of the Valley for restraint.
Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Friday slammed the government for invoking the Public Safety Act against former Jammu and Kashmir chief ministers Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah and said detention without charges is the worst abomination in a democracy.
National Conference general secretary and former minister Ali Mohammed Sagar, who wields a support base in downtown city, was served with a PSA notice public order by the authorities.
The Army cancelled the event "due to implementation of the Model Code of Conduct".
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said none of the persons involved in waving of ISIS flags in the city had any links to militancy.
With 19 border polling stations along the Line of Control in Rajouri and Poonch, a contingency plan has been worked out to deal with cross-border shelling though chances are negligible given the ongoing ceasefire between India and Pakistan that came into effect in February 2021, officials said.
Terming Abdullah as "a very vocal critic" of abrogating Article 370, the J&K administration claimed that his acts squarely fell within the realm of public order as it was "calculated to disturb public peace and tranquility".
Main markets and other business establishments across the Valley remained shut and public transport was off the roads.
This was the first general election in the valley after the abrogation of Article 370 and the enactment of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019, the EC said in a statement.
Abdullah's sister Suraiya, his daughter Safiya and 11 other women furnished a personal bond of Rs 10,000 and surety of Rs 40,000 each under section 107 of criminal procedure code, giving an assurance that they would maintain peace, the officials said.
'The government can do many things to improve the situation in Kashmir.'
Omar Abdullah also urged upon the governor to take some confidence building measures and also ensure that there was zero-tolerance towards the human rights violations.
Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has demanded the resignations of Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and his father, union minister Dr Farooq Abdullah.
Describing the order as a "matter most urgent", the director asked the oil marketing companies to make adequate stocks of LPG which can last up to two months both at bottling plants as well as godowns.
Restrictions continue to be imposed for the 66th consecutive day since the abrogation of the state's special status under Article 370 on August 5.
Terrorists struck at two places in Kashmir on Saturday night, killing a former sarpanch in Shopian and injuring a tourist couple from Rajasthan in Anantnag, two days ahead of Lok Sabha elections in Baramulla.
The attack took place in Pinglana area of the south Kashmir district.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said the damages in the state due the worst floods in more than a century would run into "many thousands of crores" but he would approach the Centre only after the final assessment is complete.
The veteran politician, who has been chief minister of the erstwhile state three times as well as union minister, also said the time has come for the opposition parties to come together and fight the forces who are bent on destroying the secular fabric of the country.
"I cannot say whether the crisis has been averted," Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said on Thursday about the tussle with his coalition partner, the Congress, over the creation of new administrative units in the state.
Re-elected National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah on Monday said boycotting the panchayat polls in 2018 was "a huge mistake" and the party must contest every future election in Jammu and Kashmir.
A joint commission can be the biggest Jammu and Kashmir centric confidence building measure by the two countries for the people of the state, says J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah. Mukhtar Ahmad reports.
Jammu and Kashmir Minister of State for Home Sajjad Ahmad Kitchloo submitted his resignation to Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Monday over communal violence in Kishtwar that claimed three lives.
Surya accused Owaisi of speaking the language of "rabid Islamism, separatism, and extremism" saying that this was also used by Jinnah.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who had reservations against the holding of assembly polls in the state soon, on Saturday said there was no question of not contesting the elections and "we will put our best foot forward."
Ganderbal was once the bastion of the Abdullah family but this time around, the electoral battle in this north Kashmir assembly constituency is being fought sans the Abdullah's.
Manzoor Ahmad Bangroo was shot at by the ultras at Goshbug in Pattan area officials said, adding he was rushed to a hospital but was declared dead on arrival.
Survivors of a terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Baisaran recount a horrific massacre in which 26 tourists were killed. The attackers, clad in brown clothes and wearing GoPro cameras, demanded to know who was Hindu or Muslim before firing indiscriminately. Families of the victims demand accountability and justice, calling for increased security at tourist spots.
Restrictions under Section 144 CrPc have been imposed in few areas of the valley to maintain law and order, the officials said.
The leaders from Jammu and Kashmir's political parties were placed under detention following the abrogation of Article 370 by the Centre on August 5.
Security deployment remained in vulnerable areas and mobile and internet services were yet to be restored in most parts of the Valley 48 days after the Centre abrogated Article 370 provisions of the Constitution.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Wednesday warned that any move to abrogate Article 370, which defines relationship between the state and the Centre, will reopen the issue of the state's accession to India.
Sara Abdullah Pilot had on Monday approached the top court challenging her brother's detention under the Public Safety Act, saying the detention order was "manifestly illegal" and there was no question of him being a "threat to the maintenance of public order".
"Trust is something that has been missing from both sides (Delhi and Srinagar). Successive prime ministers -- Jawaharlal Nehru, Narasimha Rao, Atal Bihari Vajpayee -- made promises but the trust deficit has persisted," he added.
With the National Conference drawing a blank in the Lok Sabha elections, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Sunday sought to know the reasons from the people of the state for the rejection of NC candidates, including party president Farooq Abdullah.
The former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister alleged that government employees were 'forcibly mobilised' and ferried to Modi's rally to paint a 'pretty picture that all is well' post 2019, when the Centre abrogated the provisions of Article 370 of the Constitution and bifurcated the erstwhile state into Union territories.
'You cannot achieve peace if your objective is not to make political accommodations,' notes Dr Nyla Ali Khan, Sheikh Abdullah's grand-daughter, Dr Farooq Abdullah's niece and Omar Abdullah's cousin.
