Security restrictions paralysed life across Kashmir as Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh arrived in Srinagar on Monday afternoon on a two-day visit, when he is expected to make a fresh call to separatists for talks.
The young couple defied the odds and came together in holy matrimony at a time of unrest.
According to a National Crime Records Bureau report, a total of 356 cases of sedition -- as defined under section 124A of the IPC -- were registered and 548 people arrested between 2015 and 2020, out of which only six were convicted.
India slammed Pakistan at the UN after Prime Minister Imran Khan raked up the issue of Jammu and Kashmir in his address to the 76the UN General Assembly session on Friday.
"We keep hearing that Pakistan is a 'victim of terrorism'. This is the country which is an arsonist disguising itself as a fire-fighter. Pakistan nurtures terrorists in their backyard in the hope that they will only harm their neighbours," India's first secretary Sneha Dubey said in the UN General Assembly on Friday.
Mystery still surrounded the claim by Kashmiri separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani that Narendra Modi had sent two emissaries to him carrying a message with a Lok Janshakti Party leader whose named surfaced maintaining today he met him but not as an emissary.
Akbar said around 30 members belonging to various constituents of the Geelani's faction have been invited by the Pakistan High Commission. They include Geelani, Ashraf Sehrai, Shabir Shah and Nayeem Khan.
Omar Abdullah's rule has been the worst of all, he has proved to be Nero of Kashmir, says Kashmir separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani in this exclusive interview.
Saibaba, an assistant professor of English, was suspended after his arrest by the Maharashtra Police in 2014. His wife and daughters were receiving half of his salary since the arrest.
Bharatiya Janata Party leader Yashwant Sinha on Tuesday created ripples as he led a five-member delegation of civil society members to meet separatist leaders Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq in a bid to break the three-month impasse in Kashmir triggered by the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani.
In its third summons, issued last week, the NIA promised him security.
For the first time in 25 years since the start of militancy in Kashmir, the separatists have not called for a general strike on Martyrs' Day on Monday in view of the fasting month of Ramzan.
Separatist leader Masarat Alam Bhat on Thursday denied waving Pakistani flag at a rally organised to welcome his senior Syed Ali Shah Geelani in Srinagar, but said it was a representation of the feelings, aspirations and sentiments of the people across Kashmir.
'Individuals have been found providing money to major terrorist groups, Hurriyat leaders, separatists and stone-pelters in Jammu and Kashmir.'
Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq was placed under house arrest on Saturday morning.
The statements made before a judicial magistrate had tightened the case against separatists.
The case relates to alleged terror funding in 2017 in the valley and involves Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed, the 2008 Mumbai terror attack mastermind based in Pakistan.
Alleged Samjhauta express bomber Rajendra Chaudhary has 'confessed' that it was he who fired at S A R Geelani, who was acquitted in the Parliament attack case in 2001. But Geelani alleges that Chaudhary was just a pawn and says that the system was behind it, since there were many others who were unhappy with his acquittal. Vicky Nanjappa reports.
Pak had realised in 2018 that Hurriyat Conference, the separatist conglomerate created by Inter-Services Intelligence, won't be able to deliver any more
A criminal complaint was on Saturday filed in a court in Chandigarh, accusing Hurriyat leaders Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Bilal Lone of waging a war against the country by making 'seditious' statements. The complaint was filed by a non-governmental organisation in the court of Judicial Magistrate Paramjit Kaur who fixed December 1 as the date for hearing evidence in the case.
"It (JeI's statement) is a very valid thing. Islam seeks such a society where human values are respected, where modesty is upheld, where semi-naked dresses are not worn, where alcohol and drugs are not promoted and where women and men do not mix," Geelani said.
Security forces are on high alert in Jammu and Kashmir, to maintain law and order in the troubled state in view of United States President Barack Obama's three-day visit to India.A senior police officer said tight security measures have been put in place across the state. Incidentally, 35 Sikhs were gunned down in south Kashmir's Chattisinghpora village in March, 2000 when then US President Bill Clinton was visiting the country.
Authorities on Thursday booked hard-line Hurriyat chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani under the stringent Public Safety Act and placed moderate Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umer Farooq under house arrest to foil their planned all-party meet to chalk out the future course of action. "We have booked him (Geelani) under PSA. There are a good number of grounds (for detention) against Geelani. I have signed the PSA warrant against Geelani and as per the orders," said the DM.
Normal life was disrupted in Kashmir Valley on Thursday due to a strike called by hardline Hurriyat Conference led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani to protest killings in Gaza and to mourn the death of seven persons in an accident involving an army vehicle.
They also emphasised that Pakistan should play an "active role in highlighting the human rights violations" in Jammu and Kashmir at international fora.
During the searches, a few thousand Pakistani rupees and currencies belonging to the UAE and Saudi Arabia as well as incriminating documents were found
The NIA is also probing all angles of the funding of separatist leaders.
Threats were often communicated to Pandit homes through notes tied to stones chucked through a window, or a notice pasted on a wall. Those sometimes came from neighbours eyeing that Pandit family's property. Those threats often worked in the atmosphere of terror during that awful season of vacuous exercise of State authority, writes David Devadas, longtime Kashmir watcher and author of two books on the Valley.
Slogans in favour of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru were raised in a rally brought out by Jadavpur University students in Kolkata on Tuesday to express solidarity with their JNU counterparts agitating against the arrest of their leader Kanhaiya Kumar for alleged sedition.
Hurriyat said Dulat's "primary goal was to defame the Kashmir freedom movement and spread lies about it".
Authorities clamped strict restrictions in Srinagar and north Kashmir's Sopore town to foil a separatist march on Friday.
14 places in Kashmir and eight places in the national capital were raided by the NIA.
A four member panel of Kashmir Committee on Thursday met the hard-line separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani at his uptown residence in Srinagar and had two hour-long deliberations with him.
Police said that Parra has been chargesheeted by the Criminal Investigation (Kashmir) wing of the Jammu and Kashmir's CID under various sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act dealing with waging war against the country and threatening peace.
As schools in Kashmir Valley reopened on Monday after over three months, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah asked hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani and other separatists not to target children because they are going to schools.
Earlier in June this year, his another son, Shahid, who was working in the agricultural department of the Jammu and Kashmir government, was arrested in the same case.
The chargesheet highlighted his links to Pakistan-trained Abu Dujana and Abu Qassim, who were killed in separate encounters with security forces, and went on to allege that he used to meet them personally as well as through Over Ground Workers.
'Ram Singh was under suicide watch and such prisoners are never left alone. It is impossible for him to have committed suicide,' Professor S A R Geelani, who spent several years in Tihar Jail, tells Rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa.
Chairman of All Parties Hurriyat Conference Syed Ali Shah Geelani on Saturday condemned the hanging of Afzal Guru, saying the latter was not involved in the 2001 Parliament attack and was also not given a chance to defend himself in connection with this case. Geelani said Guru's hanging at the Tihar Jail this morning is a matter of sorrow and pain for the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
Under attack over pro-Pakistan slogans and flags being waved at a rally by hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed on Thursday said it was "not acceptable" and "will not be tolerated'.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances