Reuters Photographers Francis Mascarenhas, Almaas Masood, Sanna Irshad Mattoo, Sharafat Ali, Anushree Fadnavis capture fascinating glimpses of polling in the fourth phase of the Lok Sabha election on Monday, May 13, 2024, covering 96 constituencies spread over 10 states and Union Territories.
A regular morning cup of tea proved fatal for two unarmed policemen who were gunned down by a terrorist in broad daylight in an upmarket Srinagar area, an incident witnessed by several people and captured on CCTV cameras, police said on Friday.
Two government school teachers, including a woman, were shot dead by terrorists in Eidgah area of Srinagar amid increasing attacks on civilians in Jammu and Kashmir, police said.
Police had to fire dozens of tear smoke shells in an attempt to disperse the stone-pelting students from S P College and the adjoining Women's College on M A Road, officials said.
Jailed former prime minister Imran Khan's supporters reached the heart of Pakistan's capital on Tuesday, November 26, 2024, after removing barricades and battling police in clashes that killed six security personnel and injured dozens.
'It was always anticipated that the return of the Taliban would embolden armed Islamists including anti-India groups like the Lashkar and Jaish.'
It's just not a date. It's just not about selecting a candidate. It's not about helping some candidate win. It's about expressing emotion, after ten years, that could reach out in India and beyond it, notes Sheela Bhatt.
The previous highest voter turnout in the Baramulla Lok Sabha constituency was witnessed in 1984 at 58.90 percent.
'Afzal Guru became a victim of Pakistan's conspiracy. He was used as a means, just like all other innocent Kashmiris.'
While Jamaat cannot take part in the elections due to the ban imposed on it by the Union home ministry, it had shown interest in participating in the polls during the Lok Sabha elections if the ban were removed.
The bus service was suspended on August 14 in the wake of violence in the Valley after five persons, including Hurriyat leader Sheikh Abdul Aziz were killed in police firing on a rally marching towards Muzaffarabad to end the 'economic blockade' enforced by Sri Amarnath Yatra Sangarsh Samiti in Jammu.
The repoll will be held on April 13.
Protests broke out again on Saturday in Maisuma, a stronghold of the pro-independence Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front chairman Yasin Malik, who was injured during police baton charge in Lal Chowk on Friday.
Union Home Secretary G K Pillai will visit Srinagar on Wednesday to review the law and order situation in violence-hit Kashmir. He is scheduled to meet Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and some top officials of the state government, official sources said.
It is estimated that around two dozen terrorists are well-entrenched within the city limits, while their movement and visibility in rural areas have become a routine.
After days of calm, fresh violence erupted in Srinagar leaving three persons dead following which indefinite curfew was clamped in Srinagar on Tuesday.
'...or go to jail.' 'The government is getting them silenced.'
Life in entire Kashmir Valley was thrown out of gear on Friday following a separatist shutdown and incidents of violence those left 14 persons including six cops wounded.
Curfew was lifted temporarily in Srinagar for prayers at local mosques as 30 persons, including 23 security personnel, were injured when mobs pelted stones in two incidents in Nowhatta in the downtown city area and Pulwama district of South Kashmir.
Srinagar continued to be on the boil for the third day with protestor-security force clashes rocking it even as strict curfew-like restrictions remained in force in the old city on Sunday.
On Thursday, July 27, amid tight security, the Shia Muslim community in Srinagar took out the 8th Day Muharram procession. The procession was carried out after a gap of 33 years in the Kashmir Valley.
Violence erupted in summer capital Srinagar as Shia youth defied security restrictions and resorted to heavy stone pelting on the security forces during a Muharram procession on Sunday, reports Mukhtar Ahmad
Inaugurating the new terminal for the Srinagar international airport from where the first direct flight to Dubai was undertaken, Sonia Gandhi said, " The people of Jammu and Kashmir have shown their faith in democracy by an overwhelming participation in the recently held assembly elections in the state."
Rampaging mobs on Saturday set on fire some public properties, including the Crime Branch office and a police guard post in Hazratbal Shrine as violence marred Eid-ul-Fitr celebrations in Srinagar city.
It's intriguing that the prime minister now wants his American partner to help protect the Hindu minority in Bangladesh. That's conceding to the Americans a pre-eminence India has always contested, resented and feared, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Margaret Sekaggya met members of the local civil society and various human rights activists in Srinagar on Wednesday evening. Margaret arrived in Srinagar on Wednesday afternoon on a two day visit to Kashmir to 'asses the human rights situation in the Valley'. This is the first visit of the UN special rapporteur on human rights to Kashmir Valley after the outbreak of militant violence in 1990.
Women Of My Billion is stark and disturbing, but at the end of it Srishti Bakshi is still able to say, 'My India is not beyond repair', observes Deepa Gahlot.
'Everyone is unhappy with the lieutenant governor's administration, which is ignorant, high-handed, and inaccessible.'
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.
The Pandits said they have heaved a sigh of relief on reaching their township at Jagti in the outskirts of Jammu after spending sleepless nights in their rented accommodations in the Kashmir over the past few weeks.
Several areas in Srinagar observed a shutdown on Monday to protest the death of a 16-year-old boy in clashes with the police, even as authorities suspended an assistance sub-inspector for acting in a "negligent and careless" manner.
A youth was killed and 30 others were injured in post Friday prayer protests in the old city areas late this afternoon.Fierce clashes erupted soon after the worshippers were leaving the various mosques including the Jamia masjid in old city.
'If, as happened in Baramulla during the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the youth in the Valley get triggered enough to jump into the wider fray, the end result would be difficult to predict, especially as the state's post-August 5, 2019 political format remains substantially fragmented and foggy,' points out Mohammad Sayeed Malik, the veteran commentator on Kashmir affairs.
Violence erupted in Srinagar again on Wednesday morning, following the recovery of the body of a student, who had been missing since last week.The undergraduate student, Asrar Ahmad Dar, went missing after he left his home on a motorcycle last Wednesday. His body was recovered by the police today morning.As the news of Dar's death reached Maisuma, where his family resides, hundreds of angry youths took to the streets.They shouted anti-government slogans, ransacked shops.
An unspecified number of terrorists fired at the security forces in the area which is close to the historic Jama Masjid.
The incident took place at Tumchi Nowpora of Pulwama district in South Kashmir when the labourer, Mukesh Kumar, was in the market to buy some vegetables.
After a month-long halt due to the violent clashes in Jammu and Kashmir, Medecins Sans Frontieres, an international medical humanitarian organisation, has resumed its activities in the Valley.
As Manipur is still witnessing incidents like arson since May 3, the state government has extended the ban on the internet by five more days till June 25. Data services have also been banned in view of the persisting unrest in the state.
Security forces were on Sunday deployed in strength in parts of Srinagar in the wake of fresh violence following death of a teenager, even as normal life remained affected elsewhere in the Valley for the 121st consecutive day due to separatist-sponsored strike.
