Peoples Democratic Party legislator Mohammad Ashraf Mir, who scored a victory over Omar Abdullah from the Sonawar assembly seat, has stoked a controversy after a video surfaced purportedly showing him firing several rounds from an automatic rifle on the day of the assembly poll results.
Relentless heavy rain led to a landslide on the route to the Mata Vaishno Devi shrine atop the Trikuta hill on Tuesday afternoon, killing at least five people and injuring 14, officials said.
"Our handshake with Indian Union was subject to certain conditions," he said.
Climate activist Sonam Wangchuk was arrested Friday by a police party in Leh, two days after violent protests by supporters of the movement for statehood and extension of Sixth Schedule of Constitution left four persons dead and 90 others injured, officials said.
'This is the "naya/new J&K" after Aug 2019. We get locked up in our homes with no explanation. It's bad enough they've locked my father (a sitting MP) & me in our home, they've locked my sister & her kids in their home as well'
Addressing a function to observe the 105th birth anniversary of his grandfather and National Conference founder Sheikh Abdullah in Srinagar, the chief minister said that from day one his government had 'underlined the necessity of addressing political issues of the state in a political way.
The officials said that intelligence agencies had been alerted about the possibility of a terror attack, but the inputs were utilised at another place, some 90 kilometres away from the site where the attack took place, resulting in a key security lapse.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Monday met Home Minister P Chidambaram, ahead of a crucial meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security which will deliberate on the issue of partial withdrawal of the controversial Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act in the state. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi had a threadbare discussion with Cabinet colleagues and senior party leaders in the Congress Core Group on Friday on the issue.
'We have been cheated. We are trying to bring Article 370 back'
'We called him Sher-e-Kashmir but we realised he was no lion but a pussycat who surrendered.'
'The Indian embassy did send a bus to evacuate us along with an Indian embassy official, but Urmia University is not giving us permission to leave.'
In the first targeted killing of the year, terrorists on Wednesday shot dead a worker from Punjab while another sustained injuries in Habba Kadal area of Srinagar, officials said.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday flayed Dr Farooq Abdullah, who claimed that the media had distorted his son Omar Abdullah's comments on the Amarnath yatra issue.
Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, chairman of the All Party Hurriyat Conference denied the charges levelled against him by Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah. Speaking to rediff.com from his residence in downtown Srinagar, the Mirwaiz said "the charges levelled by the chief minister were baseless and unfounded".
Restoration of Article 370 and Jammu and Kashmir's statehood as well as implementation of the autonomy resolution passed by the erstwhile assembly in 2000 are among the National Conference's 12 guarantees announced in its manifesto for the upcoming polls.
'Dr Abdullah is the oldest and tallest leader in our current political landscape and it was very kind of him to come and see us.'
National Conference chief Omar Abdullah, who is all set to become the youngest Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, today favoured continuation of the peace process in the state.
Omar had lost the seat to People's Democratic Party candidate Qazi Mohammad Afzal during 2002 assembly polls, which proved crucial in the formation of the Mufti Mohammad Sayeed-led PDP Congress coalition government that ruled the state for nearly six years.
Sticking to his promise of frequent interactions with the common masses, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has held an 'Awami Mulaqat' (meet the people), during which he interacted with scores of deputations in Srinagar.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Sunday met Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh in Jammu and briefed him about the peace and development scenario prevailing in the state at present.
Asking separatists to refrain from violence during the holy month of Ramzan, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah asked them to take advantage of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's statement that he was ready to consider autonomy if there was a consensus. At the same time, Omar said the "trust deficit" between the Centre and people of the state can be bridged by "restoring autonomy".
There is a need to rebuild the relationship between Jammu and Kashmir and rest of the country which has fallen prey to the two decades-old militancy, said Chief Minister Omar Abdullah.
Drones were sighted and explosions were heard in Jammu and Kashmir on Friday, a day after India thwarted attempts by the Pakistan military to attack Indian military installations using drones and missiles. The drones were also engaged in Udhampur and Nagrota of Jammu and Punjab. Heavy cross-border shelling started along the International Border in Suchetgarh and Ramgarh sectors of Jammu and Samba districts. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah appealed to residents to stay indoors and ignore rumors.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Tuesday said he was against media censorship but the content on some social networking sites were "dangerous and inflammatory".
The Jammu and Kashmir government is making constant efforts to bring back Kashmiri Pandits to the Valley as without them, Kashmir is incomplete, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said on Wednesday.
Rather than contesting the state elections from Ganderbal, the Jammu and Kashmir chief minister will be contesting the state elections from Sonwar and Beerwah, reports Mukhtar Ahmad.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Saturday declared that the government has taken every possible precaution in all districts of the state to deal with the fallout of the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru. Abdullah confirmed that he had been informed by the Centre on Friday evening about Guru's execution.
Welcoming United States President Barack Obama's comments on Kashmir, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Monday said that time had come for Pakistan and separatists in the state to "look inwards" for a solution rather than expect the US to "do their job for them."
An angry Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah Sunday slammed the execution of Afzal Guru and said this would reinforce a sense of alienation and injustice among generations of youth in the Valley.
"We hope that the Centre will take all the steps needed to address the internal as well as external dimensions of Kashmir issue," Omar told media persons after the reopening of Civil Secretariat in this summer capital of the state.
According to a report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu is the richest chief minister in India with assets worth over Rs 931 crore, while West Bengal's Mamata Banerjee is the poorest with just Rs 15 lakh. The average asset per chief minister is Rs 52.59 crore, and the total assets of 31 chief ministers are worth Rs 1,630 crores. The report also highlights that 13 chief ministers have declared criminal cases against themselves, with 10 of them having declared serious criminal cases.
Supporting Omar Abdullah's demand for withdrawal of Armed Forces Special Powers Act from some areas of Jammu and Kashmir, Union Minister Farooq Abdullah on Thursday said the chief minister is "the boss" in the state and the Centre should take his views on the controversial Act.
Omar Abdullah lost by 204,142 votes; Mehbooba Mufti by 281, 794 votes.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has threatened to resign in the wake of the government's decision to call an all party meeting on Wednesday on the issue of repealing of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act in the valley. "I will have to think whether to continue as chief minister of the state or not. Let my party president Dr Farooq Abdullah return and we will discuss the situation," Omar said.
Rescue operations continue in Kishtwar, J&K, following a devastating cloudburst. Anxious relatives cling to fading hope as the search for the missing enters its third day.
Questioning the silence of separatists over the killing of a civilian in stone-pelting, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Friday accused them of putting the lives of innocent people at risk by encouraging such protests."Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who had a given a call for Friday protests and is encouraging stone pelting, and his followers are responsible for the death of the innocent person and they were responsible for the death of the 10-day-old boy in Baramulla," he said.
'We are only saying that we will peacefully fight for its restoration. We will fight for it under the ambit of the Constitution, and legally as well'
Reacting to Omar Abdullah's stand against hanging of death row convict Afzal Guru, families of the 2001 Parliament attack victims on Thursday accused the Jammu and Kashmir chief minister of being "insensitive" and demanded setting up of a special court to fast-track terror cases.
