The terrorists were later identified as Pervaiz Ahmad Wani of Galoora Handwara and Naeem Ahmad Najar of Shelpora Brad, Sopore, he said.
"I can tell you that I understand you, my family must have drank water from the river Jhelum. Kashmiriyat, the culture and thought process must be in me too. When I come here, I feel like I am coming home," he said, while referring to his family ties to Kashmir and added that he had come with a message of love and respect.
Surface and air links between Kashmir and rest of the country were cut off on Wednesday due to snowfall in the valley as the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway was closed for traffic and all flights to Srinagar Airport cancelled.
A senior police officer said that the family comprising three men, four women and ten children crossed over to the Indian side of the Line of Control in north Kashmir's Uri sector on Friday afternoon to return to their homes. The family had crossed over to PoK in 1990 and had been living there since.
Three persons including two militants and a civilian were killed in a north Kashmir gunbattle early on Saturday.
Two militants were killed in a north Kashmir encounter early on Monday. A defence spokesman in Srinagar said two unidentified militants were killed in north Kashmir's Wattergam Rafiabad village of Baramulla district in an ongoing encounter on Monday morning.
Besides the national capital, polling for the sixth round of the marathon seven-phase elections will be held Saturday in 14 seats in Uttar Pradesh, all 10 seats of Haryana, eight seats each in Bihar and West Bengal, six seats in Odisha, four seats in Jharkhand and one seat in Jammu and Kashmir.
The Jammu and Kashmir administration on Wednesday sacked police constable Tawseef Ahmed Mir, who has been accused of actively working for Hizbul Mujahideen and trying to kill two of his colleagues, and four more employees for alleged links with terror groups.
The dismissal of the five --most of whom have cases registered against them for terror activities -- was ordered under Article 311 of the Indian Constitution.
Braving inclement weather, Army aviation pilots on Monday airlifted the five injured soldiers from Macchil to Srinagar for specialised treatment. Unfortunately, all five brave hearts attained martyrdom, an army official said.
Mercury plummeted in Kashmir Valley on Thursdayafter a slight respite for few days, dropping further below the freezing point with Kargil recording a new low of minus 15.8 degrees Celsius this season.
As the ice-covered parts of the Arctic Ocean melt due to climate change, China has flagged its interest to take part in building 'Polar Silk Road', raising prospects for the emergence of a new sea route.
An earthquake of mild intensity hit Delhi, Punjab, Jammu & Kashmir and some other parts of north India in the early hours of Saturday morning. Noida received three severe jolts, according to the residents of the commercial city of Uttar Pradesh. Other places from where reports of tremors were felt forcing people to come out of their houses included Faridabad in Haryana, Chandigarh, Poonch and Rajouri in Jammu and Kashmir and some other places in the north.
Seven militants and two army troopers were among nine persons killed in fierce separate gunfights in the north Kashmir Kupwara border district on Wednesday.
Three persons including a policeman and two militants were killed while 14 others including seven army men, three paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force troopers and four cops were wounded in an over 24-hour-long north Kashmir gunfight that ended on Wednesday evening.
Five militants were killed in a day-long fierce gunfight in frontier north Kashmir Kupwara district on Saturday.
Dropping references to the demolition of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, the killing of Muslims in Gujarat riots and Hindutva, and tweaking the reference to Manipur's merger with India are among the latest set of revisions made public by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) in its textbooks.
Amid unabated targeted killings in Kashmir, hundreds of government employees posted in the valley took out a march in Jammu on Thursday to demand their immediate transfer to their respective home districts.
It was another chilly morning in the national capital as icy winds swept the city while early morning fog disrupted rail operations, delaying 52 trains.
'There is also a possibility that Andhra Pradesh may demand a similar package. But as of now, we are only working on a package for Bihar.'
Addressing soldiers in Lepcha after celebrating Diwali with security personnel stationed near the border, Modi said the circumstances of the world are such that the expectations from India are constantly rising.
Thoker's service rifle and three magazines were also missing.
There were no immediate reports of any loss of life or damage to property.
Army troops on Thursday foiled an infiltration bid on the Line of Control in Uri sector of north Kashmir Baramulla district eliminating five intruders.
Jan Mohammad Kakroo was the district president of the party and office bearer of the local fruit growers association.
He said that the army has tried to neutralise foreign terrorists along the Line of Control in Rajouri and Poonch.
'Assam Rifles have prevented a large number of genocides and killings.'
'The more harder India pushes its nationalism on to its population, the further away we send Kashmiris.' 'We should understand that the unrest in that state cannot be solved by demonetisation. There are much deeper causes,' says Aakar Patel.
Fresh clashes broke out between protesters and security forces in Kashmir, even as Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh is set to visit the Valley on Saturday.
Anjali quickly decided not to pursue her career in medicine. If she had worked in a government hospital, she would have had to do her fair share of nights and weekends in hospital, which would have been tough when Sachin was back in Bombay between tours. Had she worked in private practice as Dr Anjali Tendulkar, she reckoned she would be consulted for her name rather than her expertise. Anjali is an all-or nothing person and she couldn't have just dabbled in doctoring. Moreover, she wanted to devote herself to keeping her husband in the right frame of mind to play his best cricket. A fascinating excerpt from Annabel Mehta and Georgina Brown's book, My Passage to India.
The UPA's failure to reach out to Kashmiris and the NDA's 'anti-Muslim' stance has fuelled anger in the Kashmir valley.
Claiming taxes collected from the south were being distributed to north India and that the former were not getting their due share, Congress MP D K Suresh on Thursday said the southern states will be forced to demand for a separate nation if the 'injustice' was not rectified.
'The Kashmiri identity and its unique blend of Sufi Islam, its culture and language can best survive in a plural and secular India.' 'Neither independence nor merger with Pakistan can achieve that objective.' 'Peace will return to Kashmir only when Kashmiris realise this, else they will be part of the 1,000- year war,' says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
This was the lowest minimum temperature recorded in the city since 1991, when the mercury had fallen to minus 11.4 degree Celsius.
This was the second infiltration attempt in last two days.
A Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist, who was seen in a video taken during the funeral of outfit commander Sabzar Bhat last week, has surrendered before authorities in Kashmir, the police said on Wednesday.
'The West has always opposed a strong nationalist leader in India and Narendra Modi is no exception.' 'The West prefers weak leaders who are amenable to Western pressure and Mr Modi's independent stance is not to the liking of the West,' asserts Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
With their fourth win of the campaign, ATK have now 14 points from seven matches while NorthEast, who have 10 points, are at fourth spot.
The yatra to the Holy cave shrine of Amarnath resumed on Saturday morning from north Kashmir's Baltel route after remaining suspended on Friday.
