A soldier's family in Jammu and Kashmir's Kishtwar was preparing for his marriage in December but fate had something else in store as the braveheart laid down his life fighting terrorists in Rajouri district.
Taken by surprise when heavily armed men ambushed their convoy but quickly gathering themselves, jawans of the 22 Garhwal regiment fired more than 5,100 rounds to protect their injured colleagues and forced the terrorists to retreat into Kathua's wooded hills, officials said.
About 416 Myanmarese soldiers crossed over to India in view of the situation arising out of the fighting between Myanmar's armed ethnic groups and the government forces, and Indian military is 'closely watching' the unfolding developments, Army Chief General Manoj Pande said on Thursday.
Lieutenant General Upendra Dwivedi, the general officer commanding-in-chief of the Northern Command, said five of the seven friction points in eastern Ladakh, where the Indian Army and the Chinese PLA are locked in a standoff since May 2020, have been resolved and talks are underway for the remaining areas.
'The jungles of Doda covers about 250 km.' 'Sleeper cells are providing active help to the terrorists.' 'The terrain and situation is such that it is not possible to keep track of every inch.'
Opposition parties on Friday alleged that Bharatiya Janata Party leaders displayed insensitivity in handing over a compensation cheque to the inconsolable mother of Captain Shubham Gupta, who was killed fighting terrorists in J-K, and lashed out at them for using the occasion as a 'photo-op'.
The manhunt for the terrorists responsible for the ambush in Jammu and Kashmir's Kathua district, which resulted in the tragic death of five army personnel, has led to the detention of a truck driver and 50 others for questioning, officials said on Wednesday.
The killings of two civilians and injuries to another on Friday lead to massive protests with people demanding a fair probe into the incident.
Besides the national capital, polling 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. Simultaneously, polling will be held for 42 assembly constituencies in Odisha.
Although the Supreme Court has mandated the Centre to conduct the polls by the end of September, a spate of terrorist attacks in J&K could cause delays.
The recent ambush of an Army truck in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch bears a "striking resemblance" to a terrorist attack on a police vehicle in neighbouring Rajouri district 22 years ago, security officials have said, expressing serious concerns.
The Election Commission on Monday said the voter turnout in Jammu and Kashmir this time was the highest in a Lok Sabha election in the last 35 years with the Kashmir Valley witnessing a 'massive' 30 percentage point jump in poll participation compared to 2019.
"The Pakistani Army initiated indiscriminate firing of small arms, automatics, 82 mm and 120 mm mortars from 0715 hours along the Line of Control (LoC) in Nowshera sector", PRO, ministry of defence, Jammu, Lt Col Manish Mehta said. The Indian Army posts are retaliating strongly and effectively, he said, adding that the firing is currently going on.
The terrorists want Muslim women and girls to wear burqas and strictly follow the purdah system.
On the Opposition's poll promise of statehood restoration, Shah said, "I want to ask Farooq Abdullah and Rahul Gandhi, who is going to restore the statehood. You cannot give it back. Why are you misleading the public?"
'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.'
On Monday, five Army personnel were killed and five injured when heavily armed terrorists hurled a grenade and opened indiscriminate fire on two army vehicles around 3.30 pm on the Machedi-Kindli-Malhar mountainous road near Badnota village, about 150 km from the district headquarters Kathua.
Advising security agencies for appropriate deployment in vulnerable areas in Jammu and Kashmir, Shah stressed that all due procedures should be adopted while conducting counter-terror operations.
The BJP knows how to play with people's lives and bodies, former Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi said.
"Last time I stood, I was not allowed to speak. The ruling party paid a very heavy price for throttling the voice of one MP," she said, referring to her suspension in the last session.
Four militants barged into houses of some minority community members in Panglar village of Rajouri district at around 2 am, officials told PTI.
The planned phased withdrawal of the Army from certain areas of the Jammu region has been shelved "indefinitely" in view of terror attacks being orchestrated from across the border, officials said in Srinagar.
The abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019 paved the way for outsiders to contest polls in the Union Territory.
A policeman was also injured in the gunfight that broke out in Bajaad village in the Gandoh area around 9:50 am.
Pakistan may want to undertake a 'false flag' operation in J&K to divert attention from the situation in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but infiltrating one SSG battalion into J&K and having two SSG battalions waiting to follow suit means war, which Pakistan cannot afford in its current economic crisis, notes Lieutenant General Prakash Katoch (retd).
Several deaths were reported across the country due to rain-related incidents like lightning strikes and drowning.
'With all outlets of public expression virtually choked for the last five years, suppressed anger and frustration is looking for an opening via the ballot box.' 'There is no escape from the inevitability of the 'Engineer Rashid' factor surfacing in a big enough way to upset everyone's applecart,' alerts Mohammad Sayeed Malik, the veteran commentator on Kashmir affairs.
Security forces tightened their cordon around a forest area in the higher reaches of Doda district on Tuesday evening following an encounter with hiding terrorists, officials said.
For now, Modi's government appears singularly focussed on demonstrating that it is not in any way inhibited by the BJP's loss of a majority, and will continue along its patented path of bulldozing all opposition and doing just as it likes, asserts Prem Panicker.
More CRPF companies have been deployed in the border districts to enhance security.
"Time has come when people should also take upon themselves the responsibility of using their influence on militants to make them renounce violence," the Jammu and Kashmir chief minister said.
Security forces on Tuesday extended the search operation to adjoining villages to track down a terrorist who managed to escape from a remote village in Jammu and Kashmir's Reasi district, officials said.
The incident occurred in Dharhal area of Rajouri district.
A massive manhunt is underway for three foreign terrorists, possibly of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, responsible for the deadly attack on pilgrims in Jammu and Kashmir's Reasi that resulted in the loss of nine lives, including a two-year-old, officials involved in the investigation said on Monday.
Curfew was imposed in the frontier Rajouri town of Jammu region and the army staged a flag march following clashes on Tuesday.
'There is no peace in the Kashmir Valley.'
A voter turnout of 10.82 per cent was recorded till 9 am on Saturday in 58 constituencies in six states and two Union territories where polling is underway in the sixth phase of the Lok Sabha elections.
The tribunal also granted conditional bail to Captain Bhoopendra Singh and directed him to appear before its principal registrar at a regular interval starting from January next year.
The home minister will also review the preparation for the annual Amarnath pilgrimage set to start on June 29.
