However, the attendance of devotees was thin as the people from adjoining localities only were not able to reach the grand mosque due to non-availability of public transport in view of the strike.
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.
History would not see the institution kindly if it continues to avoid, as appears to be the case, hearing and deciding some of the most pressing issues of our time, asserts Aakar Patel.
'The response to terror is not always reciprocal terror, nor is launching a conventional response the best response.' 'The best response is to make the sponsor pay a price he cannot afford,' says former RA&W chief Vikram Sood.
'The new generation of teenagers which has taken the forefront is largely an amorphous, leaderless mass.' 'It is extremely difficult to find a representative with whom to negotiate now, unless one turns to a militant leader.'
She said Modi has the mandate to take bold decisions on the lines of Atal Bihari Vajpayee for the resolution of the problems in and around Jammu and Kashmir.
Militants on Friday struck in a big way two days ahead of the Prime Minister's visit to Jammu and Kashmir, storming an Army camp in Uri in Baramulla district, killing 11 security personnel, including a Lieutenant colonel, and following it up with multiple attacks in Srinagar, Tral and Shopian.
'Everyone wants justice. I assure you that we have given free hand to the security agencies to eliminate the enemies of humanity, and soon the terrorists and those aiding and abetting them will pay for their heinous crimes,' he said.
Learning perhaps from the Kargil debacle, Musharraf tried hard to evolve as a statesman in his dealings with India, recalls Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at RA&W.
Viewed as India's most eligible bachelor by some, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi says he'll get married when the right girl comes along and part of the problem is that his parents' "really lovely marriage" has set the bar very high.
'On the Kashmir and Pakistan question, it is startling that Vajpayee and Advani did more than anybody in Indian history.'
Pakistan was put in the inglorious list in 2018 for its failure to check risk of money laundering, leading to corruption and terror financing.
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Expressing desire to bring about permanent solution to the Kashmir issue, the government on Monday said it is willing to have any dialogue under the ambit of 'insaniyat' (humanity) to address the problem and favours good relations with Pakistan.
'Imagine China pursuing its aims in Jammu and Kashmir by using Pakistani and now Afghan proxies.'
To threaten China and Pakistan, and then to sharply cut back on military funding, bespeaks a remarkable trust in Beijing and Islamabad that is not borne out by anything they say or do, notes Ajai Shukla.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday urged the government to put an end to the alleged 'systematic interference' of Facebook and other social media giants in India's electoral politics.
Mann said blocking roads by holding sit-ins had become a "trend" during the past few days, taking on the farmers' unions virtually head-on in an uncommon thing for any chief minister of the agrarian state.
'If you have only one hit out of 100 movies in a year, it is death for Bollywood.'
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who embarked on the 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' from Tamil Nadu's Kanyakumari on Wednesday, will be staying in a container for the next 150 days.
According to officials, inflammatory speeches were made during a protest against derogatory remarks made against Prophet Mohammad by now-suspended Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Nupur Sharma.
"I plan to go to the field, listen to the ground, to the youngsters and important stakeholders and then take a decision," he said.
The report contains 58 case studies of alleged excesses by the armed forces in the state.
As the second season of The Night Manager hits the OTT screen, Deepa Gahlot looks back at the top spy thrillers on streaming platforms.
Faced with one setback after another in expanding the scope of mining in the country, almost all the major miners of the world have wound down their operations in India.
The Bombay high court on Friday said the Union government should look at the door-to-door vaccination programme carried out 'successfully' by Kerala and Jammu and Kashmir, and take a 'sound decision' on its present policy that states door-to-door vaccination was not possible.
Scores of individuals and groups including from many political parties, and Panchayati Raj Institutions members, met the commission.
'I had done 23 years of very satisfying service -- 10 years in the police and 13 years in the Enforcement Directorate.' 'I had done law enforcement and thought the next step should be towards contributing to make good laws.'
'In Punjab, disappointment among the people about the AAP government has already set in.'
'Families think 100 times before sending their children to mainland India.'
A round-up of Ranji matches played on Thursday.
India has repeatedly called on Russia and Ukraine to return to the path of diplomacy and dialogue and end their ongoing conflict.
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Tuesday that he would like to have a TV debate with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi to resolve differences between the two neighbouring countries.
Perhaps the BJP will win the UP elections, but that will be a political win and will leave the problems on the ground from the economy to national security to disaffected farmers and minorities intact, asserts Aakar Patel.
'No amount of economic measures or prosperity in Kashmir will make any dent in the situation there. The average Kashmiri understands the Pakistani game and is unlikely to prefer Pakistan over India. But the Pakistanis have made clever use of religious symbols and slogans to force religious-minded Kashmiris to support them. India has failed to counter this posturing by the separatists,' says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to chair a meeting with all political parties from Jammu and Kashmir on June 24 as part of the Centre's initiatives to bolster political processes, including holding assembly elections, in the union territory, officials said in New Delhi.
Tharoor said Rahul Gandhi's disqualification from Lok Sabha following his conviction in a 2019 defamation case has generated a 'surprising wave of Opposition unity' with many parties having begun to feel the truth of the adage -- united we stand, divided we fall.
Munir was among those in Pakistan who oversaw the 2019 Pulwama terror attack, according to Tilak Devasher, a member of the National Security Advisory Board (NSAB) and who retired as Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat.
Security forces recovered two weapons from the dead terrorists.
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