Ten people died and 28 more were injured when an overcrowded mini-bus plunged into a deep gorge in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district on Wednesday, officials said in Jammu.
The alleged torture of five civilians by Army personnel in Kishtwar has triggered angry reactions from various political parties in Jammu and Kashmir, notably from Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who has demanded a transparent investigation and court martial for those found guilty.
Officials said the infiltration attempt by three suspected terrorists was foiled in Shahpur sector around 2.15 am when troops guarding the LoC picked up their movement and engaged them in a gunfight.
The bodies of two village defence guards (VDG) killed by terrorists were found near a rivulet on Friday during a massive search operation in Jammu and Kashmir's Kishtwar district, officials said.
Additional Director General of Police, Jammu, Anand Jain and senior officers of the Army and intelligence agencies visited the ambush spot in the Surankote area. The Army also conducted aerial surveillance using a helicopter, they said.
They said police parties fanned out to find them amid reports that they had been abducted and killed by terrorists.
Jammu and Kashmir BJP chief Ravinder Raina, seeking re-election from Nowshera assembly constituency of Rajouri district in Jammu and Kashmir, is facing a major challenge from his former party colleague Surinder Choudhary.
Director general of police Dilbag Singh said the April 20 attack was a well-planned one and executed by three to five terrorists.
The women of this village in Nashik still climb into a well to fetch water for their families.
Army's counter-terrorism operation in the Nar Khas forest area of Poonch continued on Friday morning.
The attack, which claimed the lives of seven individuals, including a local doctor and two labourers from Bihar, has raised concerns about the unreported trend of local youths joining terrorist groups in Kashmir during this period.
Several counter-terrorist operations and encounters have taken place in the twin border districts of Rajouri and Poonch this year.
Security forces continued a massive search operation on Tuesday in a forest area connecting the twin border districts of Rajouri and Poonch in Jammu and Kashmir, where five soldiers including a junior commissioned officer were killed in a gunfight the previous day, officials said.
The infiltration bid was scuttled in Balakot sector on Saturday evening and a massive search operation is still underway, the spokesman said.
Once identified, these individuals are drawn into private groups where they are exposed to manipulative content, including fabricated videos depicting atrocities allegedly committed by security forces, the officials said.
Nine Army personnel including two JCO's and an arrested Pakistani terrorist have been killed and three security men injured since the commencement of the operation on October 11.
Congress rebel Satish Sharma, who defeated the Bharatiya Janata Party's Rajeev Sharma by nearly 7,000 votes and relegated his former party's heavyweight Tara Chand to the third position in the Chhamb seat, has found a place in the Omar Abdullah government, representing the Jammu region in the dispensation.
The intelligence agencies have also bolstered their apparatus in the area and are working to take out the terrorist support infrastructure there including overground workers who support terrorists, they said.
With 19 border polling stations along the Line of Control in Rajouri and Poonch, a contingency plan has been worked out to deal with cross-border shelling though chances are negligible given the ongoing ceasefire between India and Pakistan that came into effect in February 2021, officials said.
Would you spend Rs 2.5 lakhs to make your car look like a helicopter? Ishwar Deen, a sculptor who lives in Ambedkar Nagar's Khajuri Bazar, did.
Here is a chronology of terror incidents in the region this year.
The BJP has emerged the second largest party by winning 29 constituencies in the maiden assembly polls post abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, improving its all-time high tally of 25 seats recorded in 2014 elections.
A search is underway to track down another terrorist, who was his accomplice, in the area, they said.
The Army has foiled an infiltration bid along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district and has killed a Pakistani terrorist, a defence spokesperson said on Friday.
The jawan is the third army personnel to die in Pakistani firing and shelling on forward posts and villages in the twin districts of Poonch and Rajouri this month.
"This fight is against the hatred that the BJP and RSS are spreading throughout the country. They have tried to create conflicts between Hindus and Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs, and Hindus and Christians just to hold onto power. But they are failing and their strategy is not working," he said.
The troops were patrolling the forward area in Nowshera sector when the explosion occurred, the sources said.
An arrested Pakistani terrorist was killed, while three security personnel were injured on Sunday when militants opened fire on a joint search party of the Army and police inside a forest in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir, officials said.
The repatriation orders for the two Indian Police Service officers come in the backdrop of a spate of terror incidents in the Jammu region, along the India-Pakistan border.
Five army personnel were killed and six injured on Monday when terrorists ambushed their vehicle in the remote Machedi area of Jammu and Kashmir's Kathua district, officials said.
'Terrorists who are active in Poonch and Rajouri are not relying on random locals for logistics, guidance etc.' 'They are being supported by a selected few who are being vetted, cleared and directed from across the LoC.'
"I am proud of my husband. He laid down his life for the country," says Mandeep Kaur, wife of Naik Mandeep Singh, who was among the five soldiers killed in a fierce gunfight with terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district on Monday.
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.
The operation to track down a group of hiding terrorists, who are responsible for the killing of nine soldiers, in Bhatti Durrian forest in Mendhar along with Surankote forest in Poonch and nearby Thanamandi in Rajouri district entered the 21st day on Sunday, the officials said.
Besides disclosing in their affidavits, candidates have to prominently declare criminal cases they are facing, if any, thrice in newspapers in print as well on television, he said, adding that political parties too have to publish within three days of nomination why a candidate with criminal background was selected. "You (political parties) have to tell the public whether you did not get any (other) candidate and why was it necessary to select them (those with criminal background)," he said.
Both candidates have shifted from their traditional constituencies - Sadhotra from Marh and Sharma from Akhnoor - after these two segments were reserved for Scheduled Castes.
The first phase of polling, held on September 18, saw an estimated 61.38 per cent voter turnout, while the final phase is set to take place on October 1 in the crucial elections being held after 10 years.
The Pakistani troops were seen firing mortars and missiles from civilian houses, using villagers as human shields. The Pakistani army used heavy weaponry, firing 120-mm mortar targeting civilian hamlets.
The weekly service was suspended on August 19 after authorities in PoK did not respond to a call from their Indian counterparts to let a bus get across the LoC.
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