Curfew was lifted on Thursday from all parts of the Kashmir Valley on the eve of Eid-ul-Fitr.
Curfew continued in Kashmir Valley for the fourth consecutive day on Tuesday even as authorities blocked all roads leading to the hometown of Parliament attack convict Mohammad Afzal Guru to foil any attempts by people to assemble there on the fourth day ceremony of the deceased.
This will be newest less lethal ammunition the force has introduced to tackle crowds.
All opposition members of the parliamentary panel on the Waqf Amendment Bill were suspended for a day on Friday amid continuous protests and accusations against Chairman Jagdambika Pal of steam-rolling through the proceedings.
A court in New Delhi on Tuesday granted two-hour custody parole to Kashmiri leader Sheikh Abdul Rashid to take oath as a Lok Sabha MP on July 5.
Sheikh Sajjad Gul, the head of Lashkar-e-Taiba proxy The Resistance Front (TRF), has been identified as the mastermind behind the Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 people in April. Gul, who is based in Pakistan, has a history of planning terror attacks in Kashmir, including targeted killings, grenade attacks, and ambushes of police personnel. He was designated a terrorist by the NIA in 2022 and a reward of Rs 10 lakh was placed on his head. The TRF claimed responsibility for the Pahalgam attack, where tourists were shot at point-blank range after being asked their religion. Gul's history includes a 2002 arrest in Delhi for planning serial blasts and a subsequent 10-year prison sentence. After his release, he moved to Pakistan and became the leader of the TRF in 2019, a move orchestrated by the ISI to present a facade of an indigenous terror movement in Jammu and Kashmir.
While business establishments remained closed, work in government and semi-government offices, banks and other financial institutions as well as educational institutions were paralysed across the valley, official sources said, adding transport remained off the roads in various districts.
In the Kashmir Valley, we need to begin to make a distinction between an insurgent who fights the security forces and a terrorist who murders unarmed civilians, suggests Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
The areas of Srinagar placed under curfew include police station in the jurisdiction of Rainawari, Nowhatta, Khanyar, MR Gunj, Safakadal, Parimpora, and police division Qamarwari and Bemina, a police spokesman said. Curfew has also been imposed in Pampore town of Pulwama district in south Kashmir and Baramulla, Sopore, Kupwara and Handwara towns in north Kashmir
Curfew remained in force in Kashmir Valley for the 11th day on Wednesday even as the death toll in the ongoing agitation rose to 104 after a youth succumbed to his injuries in a hospital in Srinagar.
'The Pakistan army feels it can inflict a similar defeat on India in Kashmir and make it "India's Bangladesh".' 'But comparing Bangladesh of 1971 with the Kashmir valley of 2017 is like equating chalk and cheese!'
Kash Patel pledged full support to India, calling the act a reminder of the constant threats that the world faces from the evil of terrorism.
The real heroes of Operation Sindoor were not the armed forces or political leadership, but the ordinary citizens of India who refused to fall into the trap of communal provocation, asserts Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Monday reiterated his idea of setting up of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to probe all the killings in Jammu and Kashmir in the past 21-years.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has started interviewing eyewitnesses, including tourists, in connection with the deadly terrorist attack in Pahalgam, south Kashmir. The attack, carried out by terrorists from the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), claimed the lives of 26 people on April 22. Initial investigations suggest that five to seven terrorists were involved, aided by local militants trained in Pakistan. Security forces are conducting massive operations to hunt down the terrorists in the dense jungles of the Pir Panjal range.
The empty cartridges found at Pahalgam and those after test firing by the recovered guns were matched by the forensic lab, Shah said. The ballistic report is with him, he added.
Lieutenant General Shakti Gurung deserves to be complimented in telling his life story and that of his people, as subaltern communities within this vast and diverse nation of ours clamour for recognition and a plea for their voices to be heard and their aspirations to be met, notes Lieutenant General Gautam Moorthy.
Roads wore a deserted look as both public and private transport kept off the roads. Business establishments, markets, government offices, educational institutions, banks and other semi-government organisations remained closed in Srinagar and elsewhere in the Valley, official sources said.
Manmohan Singh and Musharraf felt that what they were embarking upon, if successful, could lead to a future of boundless potential for the two countries and for the relationship that was hard to foresee from the prism of the existing situation and the historical position and orthodox ideas on both sides.
More than 40 per cent of the 908 candidates contesting the assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir are Independents, leading to claims that a large number of them have been propped up by the Bharatiya Janata Party to divide votes.
The train, on its maiden trial run, arrived at Srinagar station in the Nowgam area on Srinagar's outskirts from Katra in Jammu.
"Prime Minister Narendra Modi is squandering an opportunity to find a solution for Kashmir," former Research and Analysis Wing chief A S Dulat said.
All 26 victims were men.
The Jammu and Kashmir administration has neither accepted nor rejected the demand but the protest had to be suspended as stopping of salaries is 'choking us financially', protesters affiliated to the All Migrant (Displaced) Employees Association Kashmir (AMEAK) said.
'It is not about trusting the governor but the ground situation not matching with what he has said,' Jammu and Kashmir People's Movement chief Shah Faesal, who was one of the leaders to meet the governor tells Rediff.com's Prasanna D Zore.
The People's Democratic Party and the National Conference -- the two Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) partners in Jammu and Kashmir -- will be taking on each other on the three Lok Sabha seats in the valley.
Over 50 village heads (sarpanch) have resigned from their positions in Kashmir Valley, with four of them announcing their resignation on Monday. The resignations are a blow to the revival of grass-root level democratic institutions in Kashmir Valley, elections for which were held in 2010 after a long hiatus with great fanfare.
Two terrorists, including a top commander of the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) outfit, were killed in an ongoing operation in a snow-bound area of Jammu and Kashmir's Kishtwar district. The operation began on Wednesday following a brief encounter and continues. A separate operation to track down three other terrorists has also been underway in Udhampur district since Wednesday.
Targeted killings in Srinagar and in South Kashmir have inspired fear among migrant labourers from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh plying their trade in the Kashmir Valley.
Authorities in Kashmir have launched a massive crackdown on terrorists and their sympathisers in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack, razing homes of the ultras, raiding their safe havens and detaining hundreds of overground workers for questioning, officials said on Saturday.
Muharram processions were seen after 33 years in the Kashmir Valley.
The Indian Army has released a booklet on Operation Sindoor, which was launched to avenge the April 22 ghastly Pahalgam attack in which Pakistan-backed terrorists brutally killed 26 civilians, mostly tourists, and left many injured.
Real Kashmir FC's rise as a top side in the I-League has been "nothing short of a fairytale", feels its Scottish coach David Robertson, who is happy to have refused more lucrative assignments in other countries considering the "pure passion" for the beautiful game in the Kashmir Valley.
The Union home ministry on direction of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh is preparing a road map for relocation of the security forces in the Kashmir Valley -- the major demand of agitators across the state. Unified command of the security forces in the Valley is also involved in this process.
Cold wave tightened its grip on Kashmir Valley ahead of the onset of 'Chillai-Kalan' -- the 40-day harshest winter period -- with the summer capital Srinagar and Leh town recording the coldest night of the season.
India's sporting fraternity, including Olympic medalists Neeraj Chopra and PV Sindhu, expressed grief and condemnation over the deadly terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Kashmir.
US President Donald Trump strongly condemned the terror attack in Kashmir's Pahalgam in a phone call with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and expressed full support to India to bring to justice the perpetrators of the "heinous attack". Trump conveyed his deepest condolences at the loss of innocent lives in the terror attack and said that India and the United States stand together in the fight against terror. The attack, which killed 26 people, mostly holidayers from other states, is the deadliest in the Valley since the Pulwama strike in 2019. Modi, who was on a two-day state visit to Saudi Arabia, cut short his visit and returned to New Delhi on Tuesday night after the attack.
Pakistan's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar has warned India of a strong response, saying Pakistan will respond to a "brick with a stone" if India takes any action against Pakistan, amid heightened tensions following the April 22 terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam. Dar alleged that India might have staged the Pahalgam attack to abolish the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) and warned that any attempt by India to interfere with the treaty would be considered an act of war. He also said that Pakistan had no involvement in the Pahalgam incident and is getting support from countries like Saudi Arabia, China, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Hungary.
The entry and exit points are being closely scrutinised by the investigating NIA teams for clues to the modus operandi of the terrorists, the officials said.
Witnessing one of the harshest winter in decades, the Kashmir Valley experienced an extremely chilly night with a drastic fall in the night temperature even as the remote town of Kargil recorded the lowest temperature of the season at minus 25 degrees.
