They want to gauge public opinion on the recent Indo-Pakistan peace talks.
Three days before the area goes to polls, suspected militants gunned down three persons including a sarpanch, his son and a village headman in two adjoining villages of south Kashmir Tral in Pulwama district.
Besides these teams, two quick response teams have also been constituted, which will be utilised as and when news regarding the presence of any wild animal is received, a police spokesman in Srinagar said.
Deepu Kumar (27) was expecting his first child in June but his life was cut short in a terror attack in south Kashmir's Anantnag district, leaving his poor family without its sole breadwinner.
Major Ketan Sharma, the 29-year-old officer, was killed in an encounter in Achabal area of the south Kashmir district on Monday. A terrorist was also killed in the gun fight which broke out after the security forces launched a cordon-and-search operation in the area.
Three terrorists were gunned down in an encounter with security forces in Anantnag.
The anti-encroachment drive by Jammu and Kashmir administration intensified on Saturday as the land illegally occupied by 'influential persons' was retrieved at many places in the valley, officials said.
The raids in the twin capitals of Srinagar and Jammu along with Budgam in central and Kulgam and Anantnag in south Kashmir led to the seizure of incriminating documents and digital devices connected with the activities of JeI and its related Trusts and more than Rs 20 lakh, a spokesperson of the federal agency said.
A flood alert was sounded on Thursday in Srinagar city as River Jhelum was flowing four feet above the danger mark after incessant rain, while 23 villages have been inundated by floods in south Kashmir districts of Anantnag and Kulgam.
Frontline militant group Hizbul Mujahideen has claimed responsibility for the explosion.
Four persons were killed while scores of others were rescued when avalanches struck the Kashmir Valley after unprecedented snowfall.
According to the officials, fresh batches of pilgrims were not allowed to leave Jammu to embark on their yatra due to closure of the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway.
Kashmir is currently under the grip of 'Chillai-Kalan' -- the 40-day harshest winter period when a cold wave grips the region
Mehbooba Mufti, his eldest child, will likely succeed him.
The encounter broke out on Thursday night at Kanibal in Bijbehara of Anantnag district, when the police along with the army and Central Reserve Police Force cordoned off a village following an intelligence input about the presence of terrorists, they said.
The incident took place at Tumchi Nowpora of Pulwama district in South Kashmir when the labourer, Mukesh Kumar, was in the market to buy some vegetables.
As news started pouring in about the plight of the stranded tourists, the administration swung into action and started free boarding and lodge for the tourists.
Amid unabated targeted killings in Kashmir, hundreds of government employees posted in the valley took out a march in Jammu on Thursday to demand their immediate transfer to their respective home districts.
Mufti was served an eviction notice for her 'Fairview' residence at the high security Gupkar area of the city here last month as well.
Modi began his nearly 45-minute speech by welcoming the people who attended the rally in the Kashmiri language. "This time, the (assembly) election will decide the future of Jammu and Kashmir, which has remained the target of foreign powers since Independence," he told the gathering.
'Everyone is unhappy with the lieutenant governor's administration, which is ignorant, high-handed, and inaccessible.'
The killing of the two terrorists is a huge success for the forces, he said. Kumar said LeT terrorists were also behind the killing of Bhupinder Singh, Block Development Council chairman, Khag, in central Kashmir's Budgam district.
The army has quietly moved an entire brigade into south Kashmir to clear it of militants and protesters.
More than 40 food items have been banned at the upcoming Amarnath Yatra and the pilgrims have been advised to achieve physical fitness by walking at least 5 kilometres a day, the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board said in its health advisory issued on Thursday.
The terrorists hurled a grenade on a security patrol outside the heavily guarded Deputy Commissioner's office complex in Anantnag town around 11 am.
Defying Hurriyat hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani's diktat to Kashmiris against joining police service in the Valley, thousands of youths have opted for the job of special police officer.
Kashmir remained cut off from rest of the country for the fourth consecutive day on Wednesday as the arterial Jammu-Srinagar national highway and the Mughal road remained closed, while air traffic was suspended due to heavy snowfall across the valley.
Leh in Ladakh region recorded the lowest temperature this winter as mercury plummeted to minus 17.1 degree Celsius on Tuesday night, a meteorological department official said.
The bypoll assumes significance as Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti is seeking her election to the assembly from the constituency.
The operation to neutralise the terrorists involved in the encounter that led to the killing of four security forces personnel continued for the second day on Thursday as the police claimed to have "encircled" two Lashkar-e-Tayiba terrorists in the higher reaches of Anantnag district of south Kashmir.
Indefinite curfew was clamped on Sunday in Srinagar and six other towns of Kashmir Valley in view of several incidents of arson and violence on Saturday, official sources said.
One AK-47 rifle, ammunition and two hand grenades were recovered by the police from the encounter site.
Curfew was on Friday extended to several areas of Kashmir to foil a planned march by separatists to Eidgah in old city area as normal life continued to remain paralysed for the 49th consecutive day in the Valley in the wake of violence following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani last month.
'Why should I as a common man not know where my parents are in Kashmir, how they are doing. It is my right,' student Mohammed Aleem Syed, who moved the Supreme Court to be allowed to visit Kashmir, tells Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
More than a dozen Mountain Rescue Teams assisted thousands of pilgrims during this year's Amarnath pilgrimage in the south Kashmir Himalayas, officials said on Monday, as the annual yatra concluded with more than 5.10 lakh pilgrims offering prayers at the cave shrine.
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