The Jammu and Kashmir administration on Saturday announced compensation and jobs to the kin of the three civilians who were found dead in Poonch district as a massive search operation was underway to track down terrorists behind the recent ambush on two Army vehicles that left five soldiers dead.
'The bloodthirsty rhetoric of chicken-hawk TV anchors are the worst contributors to Kashmiri alienation.' 'If this implacable hatred is the authentic voice of India, Kashmiris argue, who can hope for peace?' asks Mihir S Sharma.
'Fighting terrorists is one thing. Fighting insurgents is worse. Fighting a population is worst of all,' says Mihir S Sharma.
'If Islamic extremists regain power in Afghanistan, Pakistan will lead them to Kashmir as a fighting arena again. India needs to fortify Kashmir and prepare against these Islamic extremists before they come again.'
Rajasthan Royals has assembled a world class talent team. Can RR, who won the first IPL title, win another championship?
In cricket, we have something that we can share with our families, neighbours and indeed, the whole country. It is colour-blind, language-neutral, truly secular and transcends all regions, from Kashmir to Kerala and Mizoram to Maharashtra, explains Shreekant Sambrani.
If military power is all it would take to finish the menace of an awful terrorist organisation like Hamas, how come five Israeli wars in Gaza since 2003 have failed to do so? asks Shekhar Gupta.
"We continue to press for the release of detainees for the full restoration of everyday services, but most importantly, for roadmap to the restoration of political and economic normalcy," said Acting Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Alice G Wells.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday expressed confidence that the NDA will get more than 400 seats and the BJP will win at least 370 seats in the Lok Sabha elections.
Official sources said mobile Internet services were suspended both in Poonch and Rajouri districts as a precautionary measure to check rumour-mongering and prevent miscreants from creating any law and order problem.
Addressing a Defence Research and Development Organisation event in Leh, Singh asked how can India talk to Pakistan when it keeps trying to destabilise India using terror.
'Modi has not taken India into confidence over what is happening and what has happened.' 'We have not even officially been told what the position is with respect to the land lost between Fingers 4 to 8,' observes Aakar Patel.
Press Council of India chairperson justice Markandey Katju on Saturday said that the only solution to the Kashmir problem is the reunification of India and Pakistan under a strong government which will not tolerate bigotry.
Speaking for the first time after the government announced an halt to anti-militancy operations in the state during the holy month of Ramzan, the prime minister said there is no alternative to peace and stability.
Union Minister and National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah on Tuesday ruled out any problems with ally Congress in Jammu and Kashmir.
'If Modi had followed Vajpayee in Kashmir, then there would have been absolutely no problem in Kashmir.'
'Modi has missed the bus in Kashmir.'
'The political environment makes it extremely difficult for youngsters to be hopeful about their lives, and focus on their dreams.'
'The decision of August will have to be taken back. This is our resolve. When it will happen, how it will happen, the judge of our case are the people of this country.'
'Dr Abdullah is fine and in good spirits,' says National Conference Lok Sabha MP Mohammad Akbar Lone.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Wednesday assured justice to the families of three civilians who were found dead last week after being allegedly picked up by the Army following an ambush on two of Army vehicles in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district.
The Secretary-General's Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric during the daily press briefing on Thursday said the UN chief has underscored the need for dialogue as the only way to resolve the issue and, "as part of the solution for the current crisis in Kashmir, to make sure that human rights aspects are very much dealt with, as well."
Officials said on condition of anonymity that the situation could be slipping out of their hands.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi allowed the Peoples Democratic Party chief's daughter Iltija to meet her after she submitted in court that she has no problem in going to their Srinagar home but has not been able to move freely in the city.
Asked how many seats the Congress would fight on, Singh said they would be flexible in seat sharing.
'Unfortunately, there is no movement towards peace in Manipur.'
He said in the last five years, under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi, the role of zonal councils has changed from advisory nature to action platforms.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday termed as "unacceptable" the submission that Article 370 of the Constitution ceased to operate once the term of the constituent assembly of Jammu and Kashmir ended in 1957 after drafting the state's constitution.
"For those who accuse the opposition of 'politicising' this issue: There is nothing more 'political' and 'anti national' than the shutting down of all democratic rights that is taking place in Kashmir," Priyanka Gandhi said.
People in Jammu and Kashmir may have rejected the boycott call by separatists by turning out in large numbers to vote in the assembly polls but for many of them the sentiment for "freedom" hasn't died. "People of late have realised that development and resolution of Kashmir problem are two separate issues," said Mohammad Siddique, a retired officer.
Our focus is not on substance, but communicating how we did not shake hands and how we made angry faces. This is what India's foreign policy has become, notes Aakar Patel.
'Will this surgical strike of ours put an end to Pakistani terror?' 'And if not, what will we do when the next terror strike happens?' 'Will there be another surgical strike or will we have to do something bigger?' 'How big does it have to be to get Pakistan to totally stop?'
This time Modi has no emotive message to take to the stump. Muscular nationalism doesn't work against the backdrop of China's successive inroads into Indian territory. Rising prices is a sore point that cuts across class and caste barriers; unprecedented levels of unemployment has the youth in a ferment. This has reduced the BJP campaign to a laundry list of recycled grievances and thinly veiled communal appeals, neither of which are working as well as they have in the past, argues Prem Panicker.
Had it not been for the slow but sure emergence of China as a threat to the western order, would India have been accepted as a near-equal partner by individual western nations, jointly and severally, questions N Sathiya Moorthy.
'The government can do many things to improve the situation in Kashmir.'
The Supreme Court on Tuesday said it will commence day-to-day hearing from August 2 on a batch of petitions challenging abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution that bestowed special status on the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.
She also accused the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the Centre of "murdering the democracy" in the name of polls.
'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.
In some states, many women voters had enrolled themselves by their relationship with the male members of their family instead of providing their own names.
'We decided to start the yatra from Manipur so that the people of India get a sense of what the people of Manipur have been through'
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