The Jammu and Kashmir police arrested two people who were involved in the killing of Mirwaiz Mohammad Farooq, 33 years after the then chief priest of the Valley fell to the bullets of Hizbul Mujahideen assassins, a senior police officer said in Srinagar on Tuesday.
Though markets and commercial establishments remained shut and students stayed away from schools.
The Congress and the National Conference on Monday announced they will fight the Lok Sabha polls in Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh, in alliance, with both parties contesting three seats each.
National Conference Srinagar MP Aga Ruhullah Mehdi, along with Peoples Democratic Party leaders Waheed-ur-Rehman Parra, Sheikh Khursheed and others, led a peaceful protest on Monday, December 23, 2024, outside Chief Minister Omar Abdullah's residence in Srinagar.
Any decision to include "non-locals" in electoral rolls in Jammu and Kashmir is unacceptable and would be contested by all means, including in court, Nation Conference president Farooq Abdullah said on Monday after a meeting of nine parties over the issue.
The Thursday's meeting will be the first between the Centre and mainstream Jammu and Kashmir politicians after the abrogation of Article 370 and the divisions of the erstwhile state into two union territories in 2019.
The People's Democratic Party and the National Conference -- the two Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) partners in Jammu and Kashmir -- will be taking on each other on the three Lok Sabha seats in the valley.
The vehicle, a Tavera, was on its way to Jammu from Srinagar and it fell into a 300-foot gorge at the Battery Cheshma area of the district around 1.15 am, they said.
The assailants believed to be Pakistani terrorists, meticulously studied the site layout before executing their plan.
Asked if the party would approach the court for the restoration of Jammu and Kashmir's statehood, the NC leader said, "I do not want to get into that right now."
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.
Restrictions continue to be imposed for the 66th consecutive day since the abrogation of the state's special status under Article 370 on August 5.
Classes were not held in most schools across Kashmir as students did not turn up due to the prevailing situation, they said.
Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha's power to nominate five members to the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly was at the centre of a political and legal debate on the eve of vote count, with the Congress and regional parties the National Conference and the People's Democratic Party on Monday opposing any such move during government formation.
There is a limit to ignoring genuine aspirations of the people and suppressing their legitimate voice in running the affairs of the state, notes Mohammad Sayeed Malik, the distinguished commentator on Kashmir affairs.
Barring a stone pelting incident at Soibagh area in Budgam district, the situation was peaceful in the areas where the polling was held, the officials said.
Will Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, who gets his orders from New Delhi, call the shots or allow a democratically elected government to independently govern, questions Ramesh Menon.
The authorities also sealed the Lal Chowk city centre - the commercial hub of the city - by placing barricades and concertina wires on all entry and exit points leading to the area.
Sources said that Abdullah has now been detained under the stringent Public Safety Act
'My request to Amit Shah would be "Please do not use archaic laws and muscle power against voices that have always stood by India.".'
The Lok Sabha member from Srinagar was elected chairman of the PAGD after the first meeting of the amalgam at the residence of Peoples Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti.
Shah said "three families" are answerable to the people for their failure to develop Jammu and Kashmir over the past seven decades.
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?"
The attack took place at 1:20 pm in Hari Singh High Street market area.
Two explosions during and before ruling National Conference poll rallies in Srinagar and central Kashmir's Budgam districts left 13 persons injured on Sunday.
Home ministry officials told the parliamentary panel that those detained under the PSA can challenge their detention in a designated tribunal.
A boat carrying mostly school children capsized in the Jhelum river on the outskirts of the city on Tuesday, leaving six people dead, officials said.
'There is no point in just saying, 'hum wapas bhej denge (we will send Kashmiri Pandits back)'.'
Refuting speculations of split in the alliance between Congress and National Conference, Omar Abdullah said his party has no intention of leaving the alliance.
The working committee of the ruling National Conference is holding a crucial session in Srinagar to discuss the prevailing situation in Kashmir on Thursday.
'INDIA will easily cross 50 seats out of 90 in Jammu and Kashmir.'
'If the National Conference and PDP make handsome electoral gains in the valley and call for the restoration of the former state's lost status, how will the rulers in Delhi respond?' asks Amulya Ganguli.
The ruling National Conference-Congress coalition in Jammu and Kashmir received a severe drubbing in the Lok Sabha elections as the coalition could not win even a single seat of the 6 in the state.
The National Conference called the meeting after remarks related to the addition of voters in the revised rolls by the Union Territory's chief electoral officer Hirdesh Kumar raised hackles of the regional parties.
'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.'
Masoodi said all the participants are against giving voting rights to non-locals as "it will be tantamount to the disenfranchisement of the local voters."
'There is no link between Article 370 abrogation and a rise in voting percentage.'
In a break from past, there was no function at the martyrs' graveyard in Srinagar after the government dropped July 13 from the list of gazetted holidays last year, officials said.
Clashes also broke out at several places in Kashmir on Tuesday, leaving several persons injured.
The visit by the MPs comes nearly two months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi met top leaders of Jammu and Kashmir on June 24.
