Curfew remained in force on Saturday in violence-hit Kishtwar district, even as protests against Friday's communal clashes there rocked Jammu and adjoining districts, where normal life was disrupted due to a bandh.
Worried over the "increased infiltration" this year in Jammu and Kashmir, Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Tuesday said Lashkar-e-Tayiba founder Hafiz Saeed could be training terrorists on the other side of Indo-Pak border for infiltration.
The first-ever district development council (DDC) elections will be held in eight phases to elect 280 members in 20 districts from November 28 to December 22.
Heavy security arrangements have been put in place, ahead of the twin public rallies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to be held on Saturday in Kathua and Rajouri districts.
Officials said the government has made necessary arrangements for opening of 190 primary schools in Srinagar city as security forces remained deployed in most of the Valley.
Since LeT is involved and the outfit is run from Pakistan, so in a way Pakistan's involvement cannot be ruled out, the police chief told reporters.
Hazra, who hails from Murshidabad in West Bengal, has served for about 27 years in the border guarding force. He is survived by a 21-year-old daughter and an 18-year-old son.
Taking cognisance of the alleged defamatory posts, the high court had directed the CBI to probe the role of prominent persons in the southern state who were intentionally targeting Supreme Court and high court judges.
'The people of Jammu and Kashmir are your own people. Do not use them as cannon fodder in your laboratory.'
Ignoring the separatists' call for boycott, residents of Qoimoh block in south Kashmir on Wednesday turned out in numbers to cast votes in the first phase of panchayat elections, which are being held in Jammu and Kashmir after a gap of 10 years.
'People are very scared. And frightened. There is apprehension of war.' 'We are under the shadow of swords from both sides and in the middle, we get crushed.' As the conflict between India and Pakistan dramatically escalates, villages along the Line of Control fear for their lives.
In the frontier areas of Jammu district, the number of people staying in the safe camps has also dwindled as the people want to tend to their standing crops.
Media sources identified the soldiers, who belonged to the 21 Bihar Unit, as Naik Prem Nath Singh, Lance Naik Shambhu Saran Ray, Vyay Kumar Ray, Raghunandan Prasad and Naik Pundalik Mane
The Pakistani army again violated the ceasefire on Tuesday by firing on forward areas along the Line of Control in Poonch district, prompting Indian troops to retaliate.
After a brief lull, Pakistan on Saturday again violated the ceasefire by firing on forward posts along the Line of Control in the Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir, drawing retaliation from India.
Curfew was clamped again in Jammu and the army was deployed on Wednesday after violence erupted late on Tuesday night leaving 40 people, including nine policemen, injured.However, the curfew was relaxed for varying periods in Samba, Udhampur and Kishtwar districts.National Security Advisor M K Narayanan today met Jammu and Kashmir Governor N N Vohra and other top officials of the state administration to discuss the present security situation.
Political and communal divide in Jammu and Kashmir has assumed such proportions that even the horrifying rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl is not bringing society together, writes Athar Parvaiz.
After a brief lull, Pakistan on Saturday violated ceasefire twice along International Border and Line of Control in Poonch and Jammu district, drawing strong retaliation from India.
BSF troops guarding over 180 km of IB with Pakistan have strengthened their observation posts and 'listening posts' to keep a close watch against any intrusion by drones.
Here's a recap of moments captured in India in the past 48 hours.
Fearing disturbances from across the Indo-Pak border, Jammu and Kashmir government will relocate 125 polling stations along the borderline in Jammu district to safer places to ensure border dwellers vote freely.
The storage of water in the six major reservoirs in the state was just 6.2 per cent of capacity as of April 27, 2017, reports T E Narasimhan and Gireesh Babu.
The order comes days after the Supreme Court had made harsh observation on the JK administration for snapping Internet services, which the apex court said was a fundamental right of the people.
Pakistan indulged in heavy firing and mortar shelling on eight border outposts in Jammu district.
On the situation in the Kashmir Valley, the army officials highlighted Wednesday evening's incident when a son of a prominent eatery owner was shot and critically wounded by terrorists at his shop in a high-security area of the city.
The businessman, who travelled to Delhi to attend a Tablighi Jamaat congregation, died on March 26 in a Srinagar hospital, 19 days after he set off for the national capital. He could have infected scores of people during his travels and about 300 people have been put under quarantine because of him, officials said.
The state has witnessed a spurt in Pakistani shelling and firing along the IB and the Line of Control. Over 700 such incidents were reported this year, which have left more than 44 people, including 18 security personnel, dead and scores injured.
The stage is now set for the first substantial round of polling in the Lok Sabha elections on Thursday, involving nearly 11 crore voters in 92 seats spread across 11 states, including Delhi and the national capital region and the riot-hit Muzaffarnagar.
Blood splattered compounds, smashed window panes and demolished roofs are all that are left of houses in border hamlets which have been battered in Pakistani shelling in the last four days. A smell of gunpowder lingers in these villages whose residents are living in increasing fear. In all, 12 people, including five security personnel, have been killed and over 60 others injured in Pakistani firing from across the border in Jammu since Thursday.
A senior police officer said four heavily-armed terrorists stopped a vehicle on the Jammu-Pathankote national highway on Friday morning and opened fire at the occupants of the vehicle, killing one person on the spot and seriously injuring three others.
India and Pakistan agreed on a ceasefire along the border in J&K, the first formal truce between the two armies since the outbreak of militancy in the state.
Troops from the Border Security Force has foiled yet another bid by Pakistan-based terrorists to infiltrate into Jammu and Kashmir under the cover of firing from across the border and thick fog in Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir.
Pakistani troops heavily shelled 15 border outposts and hamlets along the international border overnight, leaving three persons injured, one of them seriously in Jammu district.
Ten civilians lost their lives while 89 others were injured in firing and shelling by Pakistan along the International Border in Jammu region between January 2014 and February this year.
They said protests took place at around a dozen places in which several protesters were injured.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday invoked Atal Bihari Vajpayee's concepts of communal harmony, humanity and democracy to share the pain of Kashmiris and promised to take the state to new heights of development.
The poll process for the second tier of the Panchayati Raj system will be completed by November 5, he said.
Calm has returned to the International Border and its villages in the twin districts of Jammu and Samba after days of panic triggered by heavy cross border firing and shelling.
Terrorists on Monday night killed seven Amarnath pilgrims, including six women, and injured 19 others as they struck at a bus in Kashmir's Anantnag district, in the worst attack on the annual pilgrimage since the year 2001. Five of those killed were from Gujarat and two from Maharashtra. Here are the latest updates:
Pakistan on Monday summoned India's Deputy High Commissioner and lodged a protest over alleged ceasefire violations by Indian troops along the border which authorities in Islamabad claim killed three civilians.
