Prime Minister Manmohan Singh along with United Progressive A Chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday flagged off the first train connecting Banihal in Jammu region with Qazigund in the Kashmir Valley.
The sudden arrest and immediate release of Kashmiri separatist leaders who are to meet Pakistan National Security Advisor Sartaj Aziz introduced an intriguing element into the scheduled talks he will have with his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval on terror on next week.
Singh also interacted with delegations representing different communities, including Kashmiri Pandits, Sikhs, Shias, Gujjars, Bakarwals and Paharis.
India will boycott a Commonwealth parliamentary union meeting in Islamabad next month in protest against Pakistan not inviting the Speaker of Jammu and Kashmir assembly, a decision that comes in the midst of tensions over two terror attacks in Punjab and the Valley.
Usman, said he hailed from Faislabad in Pakistan, and claimed he had entered Jammu 12 days ago.
The ceasefire violation comes after nearly seven months as last such incident took place on September 18, 2015 in the Balakote sector of Poonch district.
Villages are flooded, roads have washed away and railway tracks have submerged under the rising waters.
According to a decision of the Union cabinet 3,000 additional government jobs and 6,000 transit accommodations will be provided to Kashmiri migrants in the valley.
Captain Pawan Kumar sustained injuries in the firing by militants as security forces tried to make their way into the Entrepreneurship Development Institute building, an army official said.
However, a bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra refrained from handing over the probe to the CBI and directed that the trial be fast-tracked to ensure there was no delay.
12 security personnel, including three officers, were also injured in the operation at Reasi.
The manner in which assembly seats were distirbuted among Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh so far, has ensured that residents of the Valley rule the state forever, says Sanjeev Nayyar.
A high alert has been sounded along the Line of Control in Kashmir Valley as infiltration from across the border has seen a sudden spurt with terror groups including banned LeT and JeM believed to have sent nearly 20-25 cadres in the last 10 weeks.
Six pilgrims and a woman pilot were killed when a chopper crashed in Katra, the base camp of the Vaishnodevi shrine in Jammu and Kashmir's Reasi district.
Amid tight security arrangements, the annual Amarnath yatra commenced from Jammu as the first batch of 1,280 pilgrims left for the cave shrine in the South Kashmir Himalayas.
Officers at Army headquarters say the chief has personally initiated this reshuffle, reports Ajai Shukla
Kashmir remained cut-off from the rest of the country for the second day on Thursday with road and air links to the Valley snapped due to snowfall, the heaviest in a decade in the month of January.
Minister for Development of North Eastern Region Jitendra Singh said the government is trying to woo industries to the eight Northeastern states so that enough jobs are created for the youths of the region.
Modi said the wave in favour of the BJP was stronger this time than in 2014.
President Pranab Mukherjee has yet again come out with an appeal for practicing tolerance and to accept differences while respecting dissent, in remarks that come in the midst of growing intolerance in the country.
The repeated skirmishes saw over 4,000 villagers from near borders to government camps at safer places in the district.
Four other associates of Sajjad were killed in a two-day long operation after the army intercepted them while they were trying to sneak in.
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.
Restoration of road and tele-communication network in the Kashmir Valley, ravaged by floods, will take three to five days. The Centre has directed free flow of transport via Manali and Leh to Srinagar, the only available surface network, a top central government official said on Monday.
Pakistan's 'approach is one of getting even, an eye for an eye, or death by a thousand cuts.' 'The entire effort is to be the equal of India. Unfortunately, the reality is that this can never be the case.' 'India will always be the bigger, economically stronger, technologically more self-reliant country.' 'Therein, lies the dilemma Pakistan faces which leads it to perennial enmity with India,' notes Ambassador Gautam Bambawale in the Air Marshal Y V Malse Memorial Lecture 2019.
'If you go by the essence of the Constitution of India, I don't see any problem in having a separate PM for J-K.'
Bharatiya Janata Party stands for abrogation of Article 370 in line with Jana Sangh founder Shyama Prasad Mookerjee's views but has put it on the back-burner keeping in mind its 'coalition dharma' in Jammu and Kashmir where it is in power with Peoples Democratic Party, Union Minister Jitendra Singh said on Sunday.
Following the terror strike in Pathankot, reactions poured in from across the spectrum.
Controversial remarks from Minister of State in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's office about a debate on the relevance of Article 370 that gives a special status to Jammu and Kashmir has evoked sharp reactions from state Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and main opposition Peoples Democratic Party.
'The problem here is not that one community's deity has suddenly become another community's meal.' 'Hindus and Muslims have been peacefully coexisting with their cows for centuries now.' 'The problem here is that a section of Indians has been suddenly made to realise that it makes great political sense to degrade each one of the 170 million Muslims to a potential cow-killer, lynch a few of them to keep the heat on, polarise and win elections.'
Four things Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said that would make every India proud of its armed forces and India.
Giant effigies of 10-headed demon king Ravana, his son Meghnad and brother Kumbhakaran went up in flames marking the triumph of good over evil as fervour marked Dussehra festivities across the country on Thursday.
Major Mukund Varadarajan and Naik Neeraj Kumar will be given the honour
Mehbooba also became the second Muslim woman to become the chief minister of any state in India.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday evening released its first list of 54 candidates for the Lok Sabha elections.
Delegations of Kashmiri Pandit organisations on Friday met Union Minister Jitendra Singh seeking the Centre's intervention in allowing a pilgrimage to Kounsarnag Lak in South Kashmir, a day after locals had protested against the event.
Barely a week before Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to launch the Bharatiya Janata Party's election campaign in Jammu and Kashmir, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh on Monday sought to downplay the Sangh Parivar's long-standing demand repealing Article 370 of the Constitution.
The government on Thursday said it sincerely wants to have friendly relations with all its neighbouring countries, including Pakistan, but Islamabad will also have to think about its approach.
This classification of districts is to be followed by states and union terrotories till a week post May 3, when the second phase of lockdown will end, for containment operations.
A 150 metre-long tunnel, which was recently discovered near a forward post along the Indo-Pak border in Jammu region's sensitive Pallanwala sector, was apparently aimed at infiltrating terrorists, Defence spokesperson said in Jammu on Tuesday.
