At least eight persons were killed in a cloudburst near the holy cave shrine of Amarnath in south Kashmir Himalayas on Friday evening, damaging 25 tents and three community kitchens, officials said.
A Central Industrial Security Force trooper was injured on Sunday as terrorists hurled a grenade at a polling booth in Tral constituency of Pulwama district, where polling is to be held on Tuesday.
It is believed that the attack was the handiwork of a freshly-infiltrated group of terrorists who could have entered along the Salamabad Nallah into the town.
However, the attendance of devotees was thin as the people from adjoining localities only were not able to reach the grand mosque due to non-availability of public transport in view of the strike.
Soaked in patriotism, Indians marked the country's 71st Independence Day with the tricolour fluttering high and the national anthem reverberating at various spots across the nation.
In Jammu and Kashmir, Eid prayers passed off peacefully and there was no report of any untoward incident, the police said.
Security has been beefed up across Kashmir ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's maiden visit to the Valley on July 4. Police and paramilitary forces have set up barricades at many places in the summer capital of the state and other major towns for carrying out searches of vehicles, the police said.
The protesting families were on a sit-in since Wednesday morning and held a candlelight vigil after the daylong protest.
'From the time we landed to the time we left, we got so much love that I didn't feel like coming home.'
"Curfew has been imposed in five police station areas of downtown (interior city) and Batamaloo and Maisuma areas in the uptown," a police official said, adding restrictions on assembly of people would remain in force in the rest of the Valley.
A huge cache of arms and ammunition, which includes an AK-47 rifle, magazines, grenades, RPG-7 rocket launcher, was recovered from the encounter site, he said.
The former Congress president has been questioning the government over the martyrdom of Indian soldiers and has demanded answers from the prime minister.
The former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister said the agenda of the new political outfit would be to struggle for the restoration of J and K's statehood and to fight for the job and land rights of people.
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.
In a veiled reference to separatists and hardline Hurriyat Conference leaders, Singh also said the security given to people getting funds from Pakistan and its snooping agency Inter-Services Intelligence should be reviewed.
Shortly after arriving from Delhi, the home minister attended a solemn function in Srinagar where the remains of 40 CRPF personnel were kept in coffins, draped with tricolour.
Curfew in many parts and separatist-sponsored strike disrupted normal life for the 30th straight day on Sunday in Kashmir Valley where violence has so far left 54 persons dead and more than 6000 others injured.
The terrorists ambushed the police team which had gone to Mir Bazaar area to investigate a road accident case.
Suspected terrorists on Wednesday targeted two banks in south Kashmir's Pulwama district within a span of two hours and decamped with several lakh rupees.
Normal life remained paralysed for the 42nd day in the Valley which has been rocked by violence after the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in an encounter with security forces on July 8.
The idea of the garden, spread over 30 hectares in the foothills of snow-clad Zabarwan range, was conceived to advance the tourism season in the valley by two months.
The snowfall has prompted authorities to shut down the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway and schools and colleges are also shut.
Northern Army commander Lieutenant General Upendra Dwivedi on Monday said the targeted killings of Kashmiri Pandits and non-local labourers by militants was to keep terrorism alive in Kashmir.
Classes were not held in most schools across Kashmir as students did not turn up due to the prevailing situation, they said.
"The incidents of targeting civilians in Kashmir since a few days are barbaric. Innocent people who are working for the society and have nothing to do with anyone are being targeted," the police chief said.
Though markets and commercial establishments remained shut and students stayed away from schools.
Fresh clashes broke out between protesters and security forces in Kashmir, even as Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh is set to visit the Valley on Saturday.
As many as 160 terrorists were killed and 102 arrested in Jammu and Kashmir in 2019.
The curbs on assembly of people were put in place in the police station areas of Nowhatta, Khanyar, Rainawari, Safakadal and Maharaj Gunj in downtown (interior) areas and in Maisuma in Srinagar, as well as in Shopian town.
'The implication of being adamant is to be arrogant. So yes, he is arrogant.'
The processions stand banned in Kashmir since 1990 when armed insurgency began.
Pahalgam, a tourist town in Anantnag district of Jammu and Kashmir and a hill station recorded a minimum temperature of -12 degree celsius folowed by Gulmarg another tourist destination in the valley recording a minimum temperate of -10 degrees celsius.
The defence minister will review the security situation along the Line of Control in the Valley and Line of Actual Control in the Ladakh region.
"We noticed some suspicious movement in the Hathlanga area near the LoC. The infiltrators were challenged and three of them were killed," an Army officer said.
The weatherman has forecast widespread downpour in the Valley on Saturday and scattered precipitation on Sunday.
Authorities have imposed curfew-like-restrictions in parts of Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday to scuttle the protests called by separatists on the death anniversary of the pro-independence Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front founder Maqbool Bhat.
Srinagar is under a massive security blanket for the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi's poll rally on Monday afternoon.
Security forces launched a cordon and search operation in Laroo area of Kulgam district in south Kashmir following specific information about the presence of terrorists in the area, he said.
Mehbooba flagged-off the fortnightly train ride for children from Banihal to Baramulla on Sunday morning, an official spokesman said.
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