Former separatist leader Bilal Gani Lone has entered mainstream politics, aiming to represent his father's legacy and address the issues facing Kashmiri youth.
Jammu and Kashmir AAP chief and MLA Mehraj Malik was detained under the Public Safety Act for allegedly disturbing public order in Doda district. The detention has sparked condemnation from opposition parties.
Lone was released days ahead of the first anniversary of the Centre's move to revoke Article 370 of the Constitution in August last year, the officials said. The JKPC chairman was moved to his residence in Srinagar in February this year and placed under house arrest, the officials said.
Former separatist leader Bilal Gani Lone criticizes the Hurriyat Conference for its irrelevance and Pakistan for creating problems in Jammu and Kashmir, urging a new approach for the region's future.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Sunday said that the 'unelected nominees of New Delhi locked up the elected representatives' of the people of Jammu and Kashmir after prominent leaders from ruling and opposition parties were not allowed to leave their houses to prevent them from visiting the graveyard of 1931 martyrs in Srinagar.
The terrorists opened fire on the camp housing labourers of a private company working on construction of a tunnel Gund area in the district, officials said.
A local court in Ajmer has issued notices to the dargah committee, the Ministry of Minority Affairs, and the Archaeological Survey of India on a plea seeking to declare the shrine of Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti a temple. The petition, filed in September, has sparked a heated debate, with politicians and community leaders weighing in on the potentially volatile issue. The dargah committee has declined to comment, but the Anjuman Syed Zadgan, a body representing the caretakers of the dargah, described the petition as a deliberate attempt to fracture society along communal lines. The petition comes just days after four people were killed in Sambhal, Uttar Pradesh, following a local court ordering survey of a Mughal-era shrine. The Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991, which fixed August 15, 1947, as the cut-off date for status quo on the character of religious places, is at the centre of much of the debate. Several politicians, including Union minister Giriraj Singh and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti, have weighed in on the issue. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has called the civil court's decision to entertain the petition unwarranted and has asked the Supreme Court to immediately intervene.
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.
Voting for this crucial phase, covering 40 assembly segments across seven districts -- Jammu, Udhampur, Samba and Kathua in the Jammu region and Baramulla, Bandipora and Kupwara in north Kashmir -- is scheduled for October 1.
The previous highest voter turnout in the Baramulla Lok Sabha constituency was witnessed in 1984 at 58.90 percent.
People's Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti and several other regional party leaders on Monday claimed that they have been placed under house arrest on the fifth anniversary of the reading down of Article 370 of the Constitution that provided special status to Jammu and Kashmir.
Political parties and leaders wait with bated breath for the Haryana and Jammu-Kashmir assembly poll results on Tuesday.
'I have faced 18 hours of darkness daily all my life.'
The row broke out after a private television news agency attributed the excerpts of the article shared by the NC leader to him.
Lone, who is contesting the Lok Sabha polls from Baramulla constituency, said one of the reasons he wants to go to Parliament is to strive and advocate for the same set of laws for the children of Kashmir and the rest of the country.
The junior Abdullah would be banking heavily on Shia support as the constituency has many Shia dominated areas that include Budgam, Beerwah, Pattan, Sonawari and Bandipora, among other pockets.
An Army colonel commanding a battalion, a major and a Jammu and Kashmir deputy superintendent of police were killed in a gunfight with terrorists in the higher reaches of Kokorenag area in the valley while one soldier was missing, officials said on Wednesday.
Saddam, a businessman, is the eldest among the two siblings. He has studied in England. Sofiya Nabi Azad, his sister, has studied journalism.
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.
Peeved over the silence of leaders of separatist groups, their factions in Pakistan and in occupied-Kashmir are making desperate attempts to foment trouble in Jammu and Kashmir by giving calls from across the border for 'bandhs' and strikes to mark the death anniversary of Mirwaiz Farooq and Abdul Gani Lone, officials said.
Arvind Kumar Sah, a resident of the Banka area in Bihar and Saghir Ahmad, a carpenter from Uttar Pradesh were killed by terrorists in Srinagar and Pulwama, police officials said.
Hurriyat Conference leader Bilal Lone and his brother Sajjad broke their silence on the assassination of their father and separatist leader Abdul Gani Loni, 11 years after his death in 2002. The Lone brothers response comes almost a week after former Hurriyat Conference Chairman Abdul Gani Bhat created flutter by saying that Abdul Gani Lone was killed by their own men.
Sajjad is the younger son of Hurriyat leader Abdul Gani Lone who was assassinated on May 21, 2002, by militants
Gupkar Alliance, which includes mainstream political parties of Jammu and Kashmir, has accepted the invitation of the all-party meeting called by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 24.
While Mirwaiz Farooq was assassinated inside his Nageen residence in capital city this day in 1990, Abdul Gani Lone, the founder of Peoples Conference (PC) fell to assassin's bullets the same day in 2002.
"If we want freedom, we must first give it to those who seek it from us."
Lone, after accepting the invitation from the Prime Minister, said his party termed the move of the centre as "positive" and would emphasise identifying other parties and individuals necessary for inclusive participation.
The deceased policeman was identified as assistant sub-inspector Mushtaq Ahmad.
Curfew-like restrictions were imposed in large parts of Srinagar on Saturday to foil Mirwaiz Umar Farooq's rally to commemorate his father's death anniversary.
Jamaat-e-Islami has removed the hardline leader in an attempt to moderate the extremist voices in the separatist amalgam.
Authorities on Tuesday imposed restrictions in old city in Srinagar to foil plans of moderate faction of Hurriyat Conference to hold a rally at Eidgah to commemorate the death anniversary of its two assassinated leaders.
Terrorists have stepped up attacks in the Kashmir valley over the past week.
With the prospect of a hung assembly looming large, former separatist Sajjad Gani Lone on Tuesday remained non-committal on supporting any party for government formation in Jammu and Kashmir and said he would prefer to sit in the opposition.
Three senior separatist leaders along with pro-independence Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front chairman Yasin Malik and their 13 supporters were detained by the state police on Wednesday as they tried to march towards Lal Chowk to hoist the party flag on clock tower.
The Srinagar police detained chairman of the moderate All Parties Hurriyat Conference Mirwaiz Moulvi Umar Farooq along with other senior leaders of the group in Srinagar on Thursday.
Moderate separatist All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) chairman Mirwaiz Moulvi Umar Farooq on Friday categorically denied that "any quiet dialogue was going on between them and the Centre".
Authorities on Thursday placed the moderate All Parties Hurriyat Conference Chairman Mirwaiz Moulvi Umar Farooq under house arrest to scuttle a rally called by the separatist group.
The Centre is acting tough with Kashmir's separatist leaders by taking on their foreigner wives, refusing them to stay with their husbands in Jammu and Kashmir.
People's Democratic Party patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed was on Sunday sworn-in as the 12th chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir.
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