On the Opposition's poll promise of statehood restoration, Shah said, "I want to ask Farooq Abdullah and Rahul Gandhi, who is going to restore the statehood. You cannot give it back. Why are you misleading the public?"
Twenty Sri Lankan Tamil pilgrims visiting the shrine of Lord Ayyapa at Sabarimala, have been arrested as they did not possess proper travel documents. The pilgrims, who were said to have come from Jaffna in Sri Lanka, were arrested late last night and they would be produced in the court later today, police sources said.
Of these, 64,993 pilgrims paid obeisance at the cave shrine till Tuesday evening, while over 1,500 had darshan on Wednesday morning.
It's a temple and we cannot impose any dress code for pilgrims," it was stressed.
Over 1.43 lakh intending pilgrims have registered themselves for this year's Amarnath Yatra beginning from July 2.
Additional police force had been rushed to the Sabarimala hill shrine in Kerala in view of the heavy rush of pilgrims, Kerala Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan said.
They will be among 25,000 pilgrims from the world over visiting Pakistan to commemorate the 539th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak in Talwandi, now called Nankana Sahib.
The condition of three of the injured is stated to be serious.
It was another black January 14 for Sabarimala pilgrims with Friday night's stampede tragedy being the third in the history of the hill shrine. The first tragedy shook the shrine on January 14, 1952, when it was gutted in a fire caused by an explosion of fireworks, leaving 66 Ayyappa pilgrims dead. The present shrine was rebuilt in place of the older one. In 1998, 52 pilgrims died following a stampede at Pampa, which also occurred on January 14 after 'Makara Jyothi' darshan.
'The Galwan clash in 2020 resulted in a large number of troops being moved from J&K to Eastern Ladakh which caused a thinning of deployment in the Jammu area.'
The government will review the weather conditions in the coming days and accordingly take a decision in the interest of the pilgrims, he said.
On Monday, five Army personnel were killed and five injured when heavily armed terrorists hurled a grenade and opened indiscriminate fire on two army vehicles around 3.30 pm on the Machedi-Kindli-Malhar mountainous road near Badnota village, about 150 km from the district headquarters Kathua.
Travancore Devaswom Board, which manages the shrine, said revenue collection on the opening day registered a growth of Rs 1.28 crore compared to last year.
More than 600 people have visited hospitals and medical camps in Puri. However, only over 130 have been admitted to hospital, said Director of Health Services, Bijay Mohapatra.
About 124 pilgrims on a two day visit arrived at the sacred Katas Raj temples in Chakwal district near capital Islamabad on Friday and were overwhelmed by the official reception.
With this batch as many as 53,995 yatris from different parts of the country have left for the cave shrine since the commencement of yatra on June 10.
The fundamental construct of India's neighbourhood policy still needs to be what Vajpayee postulated, Manmohan Singh embraced, and Modi energised. It's just that we need to junk domestic politics and excessive religiosity, while acquiring much humility and a renewed respectfulness towards our neighbours, recommends Shekhar Gupta.
A pilgrim, identified as Muhammad, said, "We had to go to the Holy Haram early in the morning without a wash. We thought our complaints would be attended to by the time we returned. But we found that our complaints fell on deaf ears."
Sources told rediff.com over telephone that the pilgrims were sitting on the platform of the lorry, which was filled with sand. Most of the pilgrims had died owing to suffocation as the sand in the platform of the lorry had fallen over the pilgrims once the lorry toppled.
Kiran Bala, who went to Pakistan to attend the Baisakhi festival, changed her name to Amna Bibi.
After being delayed by landslides for two days, pilgrims undertaking the Amarnath yatra resumed their journey on Saturday.
Leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday spoke to Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde and urged him to evacuate pilgrims stranded in Uttarkashi region of Uttarakhand in the aftermath of flash floods there.
Many low-lying areas in West Bengal's sub-Himalayan region were reeling from a flood-like situation while major rivers in Bihar were flowing above the danger level at several places as unabated heavy rain lashed the country's eastern parts on Sunday.
Five pilgrims, including two women, died enroute the 3,880 metre high holy cave shrine of Amarnath in south Kashmir Himalayas, taking the toll during the ongoing yatra to six, police said on Wednesday.
The Save Sharda Committee (SSC) in Bengaluru on Friday sought the help of the Indian government to remove the 'encroachment by the Pakistan Army' on the Sharda temple premises in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (POK), in order to pave way for its restoration.
A policeman was also injured in the gunfight that broke out in Bajaad village in the Gandoh area around 9:50 am.
As Ayodhya readies itself for the glittering, much-awaited consecration ceremony of the Ram Mandir on January 22, and as millions of pilgrims and devotees pour into the holy city for the momentous event, companies are rushing to do their bit and be a part of the mega celebrations. Some are offering a part of their profits as donations, telcos are beefing up the number of cellular towers to ensure better connectivity, and there are those distributing jalebis and food platters.
The pilgrims have brought with them an expensive velvet chadar for making a collective offering at the tomb of the Sufi saint.
A terrorist holed up in a border village in Jammu and Kashmir's Kathua district was killed by security forces on Wednesday in a more than 15-hour operation during which his partner was also shot dead and a CRPF jawan lost his life, officials said.
Twenty-four pilgrims were killed and 75 others injured when the truck they were travelling in over turned in Rampur Jhajjhar village along the Punjab-Himachal Pradesh border in the wee hours on Tuesday.
All the five passengers were safe.
The Yatri Niwas Bhagwati Nagar in Jammu serves as the main base camp for the pilgrims from across the country.
New Zealand Sikh Society spokesman Daljit Singh, who was in contact with some of the missing pilgrims, said the Indians claimed to be victims of an immigration racket and were charged thousands of dollars by an agent in India on a false promise of permanent residency.
Sheikh Salim Gafur has been selected for the honour as he displayed some rare grit and bravery and continued to drive the bus of the Amarnath pilgrims, which came under attack by the terrorists on July 10, 2017, in Jammu and Kashmir, a home ministry official said.
Rescue of pilgrims stranded in Badrinath came to an end on Tuesday with about 150 of them being safely evacuated even as the administration struggled with the task of supplying relief to remote parts of Uttarakhand where foodgrain shortage has been reported in 170 villages.
Pakistan on Friday summoned Indian Deputy High Commissioner Gopal Baghlay to lodge a protest over denial of visas to some 500 Pakistani pilgrims to visit the famed shrine of Hazrat Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti at Ajmer.
President Pratibha Patil on Saturday condoled the death of Sabarimala pilgrims in a stampede at Pullumedu in Kerala's Idukki district.In a letter to the Kerala chief minister and governor, she expressed grief over the tragedy.Patil wished a speedy recovery to all those injured in the incident that took place on Friday night. Over 100 pilgrims returning from the shrine were killed and 50 others injured in the stampede.
The Supreme Court on Monday imposed an interim stay on directives passed by the Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand governments that eateries along the Kanwar Yatra route must display names of owners.
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