Officials said the government has made necessary arrangements for opening of 190 primary schools in Srinagar city as security forces remained deployed in most of the Valley.
Large swathes of the country reeled under heatwave conditions on Tuesday with Churu in Rajasthan recording a high of 48 degree Celsius.
There were no reports of presence of the Taliban in Jammu and Kashmir, a top army commander has said, but maintained that the troops remain well-prepared to tackle threats of any nature from any terrorist group.
The election is scheduled for February 13. Their names have reportedly been cleared by the coalition government of the NC and the Congress.
Curfew was clamped again in Jammu and the army was deployed on Wednesday after violence erupted late on Tuesday night leaving 40 people, including nine policemen, injured.However, the curfew was relaxed for varying periods in Samba, Udhampur and Kishtwar districts.National Security Advisor M K Narayanan today met Jammu and Kashmir Governor N N Vohra and other top officials of the state administration to discuss the present security situation.
The Jammu-Srinagar National Highway remained closed for traffic for the third day on Friday due to fresh landslides triggered by heavy rains, leaving over 500 Kashmir-bound passengers stranded.
A suspected Lashkar-e-Tayiba terrorist was killed on Thursday in a brief gunfight with security forces in a village in Pulwama district of south Kashmir, police said.
A senior police officer told rediff.com that the mishap occurred when the driver lost control of the bus, which was on its way to Udhampur from Katra.
The country is all set for the second round of elections on April 18 in the ongoing seven-phase Lok Sabha polls that will elect 543 members to the lower house of Parliament. Going to polls in the second phase will be 95 seats in 12 states and one Union Territory. Here is a look at some of the big names contesting in phase two of Lok Sabha elections.
Veerander Singh had a verbal duel with company commander Inspector Snoop following which he opened fire at him and another jawan identified as Parveen Kumar near the cave shrine, leaving both of them in a critical condition, DIG (Reasi Udhampur Range) Alok Puri told PTI. The jawan later committed suicide by shooting himself with the self loading rifle, he added.
Eight militants were killed across Jammu and Kashmir in three different gunfights between security forces and militants Wednesday.
Jammu woke up to a tense morning on Saturday as the Army was called in to help the administration in maintaining law and order after violent protests over the Amarnath land row.The Army was called in Jammu city and other curfew bound areas of the district and continues to remain deployed along with police and paramilitary forces.The Army was deployed in the adjoining district of Samba since Friday evening, in the wake of violence here in which two persons died.
While the Congress will contest the Jammu and Udhampur Lok Sabha seats, National Conference will fight from Srinagar.
This is the first case in the Valley in which Indian Army personnel have been awarded life terms on these charges.
Two of the terrorists belonged to Hizb-ul-Mujahideen.
It is necessary to have a dramatic increase in the number of rapid tests for COVID-19 conducted on a large number of people and that should become the basis for estimating the morbidity and mortality due to COVID-19, not relying only on hospital reports, says Professor K Srinivasan.
As many as 48 ministers of National Democratic Allaince government were in the fray in the general elections.
A senior Congressman from South India told Rediff.com, "This is a big setback for Rahul Gandhi's strategy of stalling Parliament. Sushma has not resigned and Khargeji is speaking and debating. What does it say about our stand in this session?"
The Army has appointed Lt Gen NPS Hira as Deputy Chief of Army Staff with effect from March 14.
Ignoring the separatists' call to shun the vote, electors in the five districts emulated the trend seen in the first phase by turning up at polling booths in large numbers at 8 am, the scheduled start of voting. It turned out to be an impressive 71.28 per cent turnout in the second phase.
'I have only one life and that is enough.'
Shops downed shutters, educational institutions were shut and fewer vehicles plied on roads as government offices reported thin attendance in the state.
Ajay Pandita, sarpanch of the Larkipora area in Anantnag district and a member of the Congress party, was shot at by terrorists in his native village at around 6 pm, a police official said. He said Pandita was rushed to a hospital where he succumbed to injuries.
Repeated violation of ceasefire and frequent infiltration attempts by terrorists will be in top agenda of the meeting between heads of border guards of India and Pakistan to be held in New Delhi next week.
The Army is not in favour of a ceasefire with militants in Jammu and Kashmir during the month of Ramzan as they can pose a bigger security threat while merging with the civilian population.
Incessant rains have hampered the restoration work and it was diffcult to say when the highway could become traffic worthy.
Union Minister P Chidambaram has opted out of the Lok Sabha election with the party on Thursday night nominating his son Karti from his constituency Sivaganga in Tamil Nadu while another Union Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad was brought as a candidate from Udhampur in Jammu and Kashmir.
Railways proposes to complete over 550 kms of new lines in eight sections, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav announced on Friday.
Following the massive fire that spread to several areas, the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board requested the Air Force to help douse the fire.
The authorities have also formed committees of senior defence personnel, to recommend steps for checking such behaviour among the troops.
A peace march was taken out in Doda district, where 19 Hindus were killed, to express solidarity with families of the victims.
Four Army men died on the spot when a mine-protected vehicle of the 23 Rastriya Rifles unit fell in a 300-feet deep gorge on the Jammu-Srinagar national highway.
Two persons of a right wing Hindu outfit were arrested on Monday for smearing Jammu and Kashmir MLA Sheikh Abdul Rashid's face with paint, ink and mobil oil protesting against his hosting a beef party in Srinagar earlier this month.
Army Chief Dalbir Singh on Saturday visited the Northern and Western Commands to review India's operational preparedness along the border with Pakistan in the wake of heightened tension between the two countries following the surgical strike at terror camps across the Line of Control.
Army's Northern Command, popularly known as 'Dhruva Command', on Wednesday celebrated its 44th Raising Day as its chief Lt Gen DS Hooda encouraged the troops to continue maintaining their "exalted standards" through professionalism, dedication and devotion to duty.
Two Army jawans, hawildar Virpal Singh and sepoy Karodimal, were killed in a fierce gun-battle with militants at village Kund.
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