Police in Kashmir have arrested eight alleged drug peddlers and seized a significant quantity of narcotics in coordinated operations across multiple districts.
Authorities on Thursday exhumed the bodies of Mohammad Altaf Bhat and Mudasir Gul, two civilians killed in the Hyderpora encounter, for handing them over to their families, officials said.
The officials said emotional scenes were witnessed as soon as the bodies of Bhat and Gul reached Barzulla and Pirbagh, respectively.
Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Wednesday ordered a magisterial probe into the Hyderpora killings, following which inquiry officer Khurshid Ahmad Shah began the proceedings and sought information from the public about the incident.
The police on Tuesday said businessman Mohammad Altaf Bhat was killed in the "cross-firing" between militants and security forces at Hyderpora on Monday, but he would be counted as a "harbourer of terrorists" as he did not inform authorities about the tenants in his building.
Mufti was served an eviction notice for her 'Fairview' residence at the high security Gupkar area of the city here last month as well.
The special investigation team of the Jammu and Kashmir Police, probing the Hyderpora encounter, on Tuesday said while one civilian was killed by the foreign terrorist, the owner of the building and a local militant died in "crossfire" after being used as a human shield by the hiding ultra.
The Jammu and Kashmir police on Monday said they have arrested five 'hybrid' terrorists of the proscribed Lashkar-e-Tayiba outfit, three of whom were allegedly involved in the killing of a sarpanch in Baramulla district last month.
Families of two civilians killed in the Hyderpora encounter in Srinagar held a protest here on Wednesday, demanding justice for the victims and the return of their bodies.
The action, announced by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, is a response to the group's involvement in fomenting terrorism and spreading anti-India sentiment within the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
The SPO-turned-militant had decamped with two AK-47 rifles along with one Jahangir, who has already been arrested.
This is the third killing of a local elected representative by militants in Jammu and Kashmir this month.
Four persons, including a Pakistani terrorist and his accomplice, were killed in a gunfight in Hyderpora locality of Srinagar late Monday evening. The dead also included the house owner and a doctor, whom police dubbed as 'terror associates'.
Independent candidates have emerged as big winners in Jammu and Kashmir's maiden District Development Council polls, with 49 of them having been declared elected so far from 280 seats, putting them ahead of parties like the Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party.
The chargesheet, filed by the State Investigation Agency, has highlighted several instances where parents were taken across the border using valid travel documents but were later compelled to pay extra money for their wards' admission to universities and colleges there.
A special court in Srinagar on Monday framed charges against eight persons, including a prominent Hurriyat leader, for selling Pakistani MBBS seats in Jammu and Kashmir to fund terror activities.
A total of 123 candidates, including seven ministers of Congress-National Conference coalition, eight former ministers and legislators are in fray for the Jammu and Kashmir's first phase of elections scheduled later this month.
The martyred policemen were identified as Constable Ishfaq Ahmad Mir, Constable Javaid Ahmad Bhat, Constable Mohammad Iqbal Mir and SPO Adil Manzoor Bhat.
Officials said both the factions of the Hurriyat are likely to be banned under Section 3(1) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, or the UAPA, under which "if the Central Government is of opinion that any association is, or has become, an unlawful association, it may, by notification in the Official Gazette, declare such association to be unlawful."
A vacation bench of Justices Surya Kant and JB Pardiwala also requested the high court consider the plea for the grant of compensation to Mohammad Latief Magrey for the death of his son Aamir Magrey.
The probe agency said the 12,794-page chargesheet has been filed against 12 persons including Hafiz Saeed, the head of banned terror outfit Lashkar-e-Tayiba, and Hizbul Mujahideen head Syed Salahuddin for conspiring to wage war against the government (Section 121 of Indian Penal Code) by carrying out terrorist and secessionist activities in Jammu and Kashmir.
On May 24, 2022, a trial court in the national capital had awarded life imprisonment to Malik, the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief, after holding him guilty of various offences under the stringent anti-terror law-Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA)-- and the Indian Penal Code.
The Delhi high court on Monday issued a notice to separatist leader Yasin Malik, who is currently serving a life term, on a plea by the National Investigation Agency seeking death penalty for him in a terror funding case.
The 45-year-old separatist leader has been booked under the harsh law for waving Pakistani flag and chanting anti-India slogans at a rally in Sringar.
Religious rights of every person are subject to "public order", the Supreme Court said on Monday while dismissing the plea of a man seeking to exhume the body of his son, who was dubbed a terrorist and killed in an encounter in Kashmir in November 2021, so the family could conduct his last rites in the same graveyard.
The case relates to alleged terror funding in 2017 in the valley and involves Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed, the 2008 Mumbai terror attack mastermind based in Pakistan.
Separatist leader Mohammad Yasin Malik on Tuesday pleaded guilty to all the charges, including those under the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), before a Delhi court in a case related to alleged terrorism and secessionist activities that disturbed the Kashmir valley in 2017, court sources said.
Only three per cent of women candidates have been allotted tickets in Jammu and Kashmir assembly polls.
Earlier in 2010, the highest number of 156 terrorists were killed between January and July that year.
Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad on Sunday launched a veiled attack on Congress leaders and said he gave sweat and blood for the party unlike those who are spreading 'falsehood' through social media.
Where do the big guns stand as counting underway for the Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand elections?
