Two days ahead of the seventh and final phase of the Jammu and Kashmir assembly poll, militants on Monday shot dead two Central Reserve Police Force soldiers and fled with their service rifles in Baramulla district. Militants sprayed bullets on constables Inderjeet Singh and S S Budhria from a point blank range in Iqbal Market near the main bus stand in Sopore town, official sources said.
One person was killed and two others were injured when unidentified militants hurled a grenade at a National Conference rally in Brat village near Sopore in Baramulla district of North Kashmir.
Strict security measures were imposed across Srinagar on Friday to foil anti-poll protests by the separatists while a senior police officer was injured in a powerful militant grenade attack at Sopore in north Kashmir on Thursday night.Hundreds of police and paramilitary personnel have been deployed in the city and roads in the old city have been sealed to restrict the movement of people.The separatist coordination committeehad urged the people to observe 'shutdown'
The Jammu and Kashmir police on Monday arrested a top militant commander of terror outfit Lashka-e-Taiyba in Srinagar.The police, acting on specific information, arrested Ashiq Hussain alias Umair, district commander of LeT outfit for Doda, along with his wife, from the uptown Batmallo locality of the city."His wife too is an active LeT cadre. Three associates of the LeT commander have also been arrested," the spokesman said.
Three paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force troopers were killed and two others including a CRPF jawan and a woman wounded in a hit-and-run attack in north Kashmir's apple-rich Sopore town in Baramullah district this evening.
In a major breakthrough, security forces on Thursday gunned down 5 hardcore militants of Jaish-e-Mohammad and Hizbul Mujahideen in a fierce gunbattle in Shopian district of south Kashmir.
The Hussain family from Sopore and Iqbal household in Kashmir's Anantnag are eagerly waiting for their cell phones to buzz. It's been 11 days since 20-year-old Amir Hussain Rather and 25-year-old Wasim Iqbal last spoke with their folks back home.
Police said that acting on a tip-off, a joint operation was launched by troops belonging to the 22 Rashtriya Rifles and the CRPF, and the state police in Sopore town on Sunday morning. Having surrounded the house in which the terrorists were holed, the security forces challenged them to surrender. But the cornered terrorists resorted to opening fire on the troops. Till reports last came in, a Central Reserve Police Force trooper and a policeman were reported to be injured.
Hizbul Mujahideen militant Mushtaq Ahmad Chopan, who was killed in the attack, tried to escape from Tral police station wearing a burqa. In the incident, constable Mehraj Din was also injured, a police spokesman said.
Lieutenant General Syed Ata Hasnain (retd), former general officer in commanding, 15 Corps, explains what may have happened during the Indian Army's anti-terrorist operation in Kashmir in which four soldiers and one policemen, including the commanding officer 21 Rashtriya Rifles, made the supreme sacrifice for the Motherland.
No injuries were reported in the incident, defence sources said.
Umer Khalid was a A++ category top ranking terrorist and carried a cash reward of nearly Rs 7 lakh.
Top Kashmiri separatist leaders on Saturday evening joined the iftar party hosted by Syed Ali Shah Geelani, the hard-line separatist leader at his uptown residence.
Senior Superintendent of Police, Baramulla, Vijay Kumar said the police raided Sopore on specific information and arrested LeT militant Nisar Ahmad Dar alias Sajid.
The attack comes only a day after three people, including two militants, died in an assault on a Border Security Force camp in Sopore, north Kashmir.\n
Hardline Hurriyat Conference leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani was on Thursday placed under house arrest, a day ahead of his scheduled visit to Tral town in south Kashmir Pulwama district.
A security patrol was blown up in the crowded Shah Faisal market in Sopore, 55 kms from Srinagar, at around 1310 IST, the sources said.
Acting on specific info, army jawans raided a forest 70 km away from Srinagar and recovered the explosives.
'If the strength of foreign terrorists can be brought to negligible levels there will be few takers for militancy.' 'That is why it is important to neutralise the terrorists at their launch pads,' advises Lieutenant General Syed Ata Hasnain (retd).
'The Army must always be balanced in response.' 'Rabble rousers will demand that it be given a free hand against anti-national elements in the streets. That is exactly what the adversaries want.' 'Burning the Kashmir Valley through the summer is their desire; the Army will never contribute to enhancing their aim,' says Lieutenant General Syed Ata Hasnain (retd), who served as the General Officer Commanding 15 Corps in Kashmir.
Three army troopers and a militant were killed and a trooper wounded when security forces foiled an infiltration bid on the Line of Control in the Tangdhar sector of north Kashmir Kupwara district.
Rediff.com's Umar Ganie talked to some of the protesting students in Srinagar.
The number is an all time high for the state with south Kashmir emerging as one of the main hubs, providing cadres to terrorist groups.
With local militancy gaining ground in the Valley, S P Vaid, a highly-decorated police officer who helped tackle the recent unrest in the region, was on Wednesday appointed the new Director General of Police of Jammu and Kashmir.
The daring militant attack on an Army camp in Jammu and Kashmir last Friday shook the people of Uri town, situated close to Line of Control in Kashmir, but it did not deter them from exercising their franchise as voters thronged the polling station on Tuesday morning.
Bodies of three men, including that of an alleged militant, were found on Monday about 30 kms from here in Baramulla district, triggering protests by locals even though police said the deaths appeared to be a result of fight between two militant groups.
Concerned over the series of attacks on mobile phone towers in the valley, the Centre also issued an advisory to the state government.
Twenty six-year-old Abdul Hai Peer, hailing from Kashmir valley, was nabbed from Adarsh Nagar area of North Delhi.
The number of terrorists killed in the past seven months this year is the highest in the same period over the past seven years.
This is the first time that four men will be hanged together in Tihar jail.
'A couple of Pulwamas will bring the two nations to war and it will be limited to J&K itself.'
Local residents started pelting security personnel with stones, leading to clashes, they said, adding that some civilians were injured.
Lieutenant General Harinder Singh, who commands the 'Fire and Fury' 14 Corps, has the experience and talent to face down the Chinese challenge. The general is a rare combination of thinker and tough-minded doer, observes David Devadas.
Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Saturday sought to link the spate of terror attacks in Sopore area with Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar's alleged remark about revival of 'Ikhwanis', an outfit of reformed militants in the state.
Chiefs of Army Staff in India have not been tactful about politicians. But they have stayed clear of politics, reports Aditi Phadnis.