'I feel bad for those idiots who threw their Chinese made TVs off their balconies only to see this happen'
Although Omar Abdullah has survived as Jammu and Kashmir chief minister he has been unable to govern, People's Democratic Party chief Mehbooba Mufti tells Sheela Bhatt in an exclusive interview.
An enraged Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah questioned the media for raking up only the case of hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru and said law would take its own course.
'If you post on social media on an issue like power cuts in Tral, the police will come to your home and tell you to remove your social media post.' 'If you don't, then the local police threaten you that they will book you under PSA.' 'This is happening all the time in Kashmir.'
Sinha said the inauguration of the Kashmir rail service has connected the hearts of the people of Jammu and Kashmir with the rest of the country and will pave the way for the economic prosperity of the region.
Authorities in Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday asked border villages residents, who were evacuated to safer places in view of cross border shelling by Pakistan, not to rush back to homes as they are yet to sanitise and clear these areas of any unexplored shells.
As night fell over Chositi village, rescuers worked frantically and pulled out 167 people from under mounds of rubble. Of these, 38 are in a serious condition, officials said. The death toll went up steadily as the day progressed and there were fears it could rise further.
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.
They said police parties fanned out to find them amid reports that they had been abducted and killed by terrorists.
Additional sessions judge Chander Jit Singh granted the relief to Rashid, who had moved the court seeking interim bail to campaign in the upcoming Jammu and Kashmir assembly elections.
'It is sad and unfortunate. But we have to accept it'
Rejecting Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah's warning, the youth wing of Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday said no one could stop them from hoisting the national flag at Srinagar's Lal Chowk on Republic Day.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday clinched a stunning hat-trick win in Haryana overcoming anti-incumbency and dashing Congress' hopes of a comeback while the National Conference-Congress combine pulled off a spectacular victory in maiden elections in Jammu and Kashmir after abrogation of Article 370 in 2019.
Social media influencer Orhan Awatramani, known as Orry, and seven others were booked for allegedly consuming alcohol at a hotel in Katra, the base camp for the pilgrimage to Mata Vaishno Devi shrine. The FIR was registered for violating the law and hurting religious sentiments. The hotel reportedly prohibits alcohol and non-vegetarian food due to its proximity to the shrine.
Political parties, cutting across affiliations and ideologies, Friday welcomed the Kashmir rail link inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, hoping for a boost in trade and tourism in the valley.
Climate activist Sonam Wangchuk called off his hunger strike as protests for Ladakh statehood and Sixth Schedule extension turned violent. The BJP office was set on fire, vehicles were torched, and clashes erupted, leading to the imposition of prohibitory orders.
Jammu and Kashmir Minister of State for Home Sajjad Ahmad Kitchloo submitted his resignation to Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Monday over communal violence in Kishtwar that claimed three lives.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Thursday lambasted a particular category of the national leadership for 'discriminating' against the state.
The depiction of hijackers of the Indian Airlines flight from Kathmandu to Delhi has kicked off a row with a section of viewers objecting to the 'humane' projection of the perpetrators.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, scheduled to participate in the India Today Conclave, has expressed surprise after a chartered plane was provided to AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal to attend the event.
'Right now, we have no relationship with Pakistan. And the relationship with China is not great.'
National Conference general secretary and former minister Ali Mohammed Sagar, who wields a support base in downtown city, was served with a PSA notice public order by the authorities.
'Anybody who says one critical word can be branded as somebody who's glorifying terrorism.'
The administration of the union territory as directed by the Jammu and Kashmir high court to make public land given under the controversial Roshni land scheme, since scrapped by a court, came out with the list of beneficiaries.
A two-member team of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) met Rohingya Muslims at a slum in Jammu amid a heated debate whether the illegally settled immigrants be provided water and electricity.
The casualties were reported hours before India and Pakistan agreed to end hostilities, which soared after the Indian Armed Forces hit terror launchpads in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir earlier this week in response to the Pahalgam attack.
Heavy rains across India have led to widespread flooding, causing damage to infrastructure, displacement of residents, and disruption of normal life. Rescue efforts are underway in affected areas.
Mehbooba lashed out Omar for his tweets but the former CM hit back, saying it was to make her accountable and he won't back down from speaking on issues of public interest.
Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Friday slammed the government for invoking the Public Safety Act against former Jammu and Kashmir chief ministers Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah and said detention without charges is the worst abomination in a democracy.
The first phase of polling, held on September 18, saw an estimated 61.38 per cent voter turnout, while the final phase is set to take place on October 1 in the crucial elections being held after 10 years.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said the damages in the state due the worst floods in more than a century would run into "many thousands of crores" but he would approach the Centre only after the final assessment is complete.
"I cannot say whether the crisis has been averted," Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said on Thursday about the tussle with his coalition partner, the Congress, over the creation of new administrative units in the state.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who had reservations against the holding of assembly polls in the state soon, on Saturday said there was no question of not contesting the elections and "we will put our best foot forward."
"We saw missiles in the sky and heard bombs in our neighbourhood... We were petrified," said MBBS student Mir Khalif, his voice still trembling with fear, as he stepped out of the Delhi airport after being evacuated from war-hit Iran under Operation Sindhu.
After the Congress' shock defeat in Haryana, the opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) parties flexed their muscles on Wednesday, accusing the grand old party of ignoring them.
Normal life was thrown out of gear in Kashmir on Saturday as most areas of the valley received snowfall, disrupting flight and railway operations and also leading to the closure of the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway, officials said.
Heavy Pakistani shelling in the border district of Poonch in Jammu and Kashmir left nine people dead and 28 injured. The shelling, described by residents and officials as "barbaric and cowardly", started around 2 am, damaging dozens of residential houses, shops, vehicles, and heritage sites. The incident comes after India launched "Operation Sindoor" in retaliation to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack. India condemned the act, calling it a cowardly attack on civilians, and reaffirmed that civilian safety remains its top priority.
The PDP looks a distant third in the race, observes Mohammed Sayeed Malik, the distinguished commentator on Kashmir politics.
Ganderbal was once the bastion of the Abdullah family but this time around, the electoral battle in this north Kashmir assembly constituency is being fought sans the Abdullah's.
