Three militants, including a self-styled commander of Jaish-e-Mohammed, were killed, while an army officer was wounded in a fierce gunfight that lasted about 20 hours in south Kashmir's Bongam Hajan village in Pulwama district.
The Lashkar-e-Tayiba on Thursday threatened Kashmiri women of dire consequences if they do not wear veils. They also issued a threat to panches and sarpanches to resign from their posts immediately.
"I had only one child and I gave him to the army, to the nation. No father can be prouder," Rajbir Singh, Captain Pawan's father said.
Security forces shot dead a militant in a gunfight after their foot patrol came under fire from the ultras in Pulwama district of south Kashmir on Wednesday. An unidentified militant has been killed and the operation was on going till late evening, an army spokesman said.
The blast killed the officer and injured a soldier who was evacuated to hospital.
Rawat conveyed to the family that forces stood with them in their hour of grief.
With adverse weather forecast for the next 24 hours, the road is unlikely to be opened for traffic on Monday.
The Army sources said the five personnel include two officers. According to the sources, a hunt has been launched to trace the missing personnel, while the operation to neutralise the militants was also on.
The phone could be in your hand but another person, possibly a militant or a sympathiser, could be using its 'hotspot' facility, say police officials, red-flagging the latest modus operandi of terrorists in Kashmir and warning unsuspecting civilians about the trouble they could land in.
Hundreds others were wounded many of whom received bullet and pellet injuries and are undergoing treatment in various hospitals.
While two Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists were killed in Shopian district, two Ansar Gazwat-ul-Hind ultras were gunned down in Pulwama district in south Kashmir.
As per one of the arrested persons, the slain terrorists were Pashto-speaking either from a village in Pakistan bordering Afghanistan or from Afghanistan itself, the Jammu police chief told reporters in Jammu in the evening.
The enhanced allowance will be applicable to all paramilitary personnel deployed in Jammu and Kashmir and Naxal-hit areas.
"This is [an] unpardonable crime by militants to derail the peace process initiated in Jammu and Kashmir by the coalition\n\ngovernment," the chief minister said.
An encounter broke out on Wednesday between militants and security forces in Awantipora area of Pulwama district in south Kashmir, officials said.
The number of terrorists killed in the past seven months this year is the highest in the same period over the past seven years.
Not ruling out the violation of Standard Operating Procedures when such a huge movement of central forces is taking place in the troubled state, officials requesting anonymity said a clear picture on loopholes, if any, will be known after a thorough probe.
Restrictions have been imposed in five police station areas of Srinagar, a police official said.
Posters printed in Urdu, seen pasted in several villages of Anantnag and Pulwama districts of South Kashmir, have asked people to boycott the polls.
A seven-kilogram improvised explosive device (IED) was detected on Sunday near the crowded general bus stand area in Jammu, averting a major tragedy and a plan by terrorists to set off an explosion on the second anniversary of the 2019 Pulwama attack, officials said.
Colonel Yadav often meets the village elders and is seen greeted by an affectionate hug which he calls a jadoo ki jhapi.
A vehicle-borne IED blast was averted as security forces detected a car laden with 45 kg of explosives in Pulwama.
A police official, an army trooper and a top militant commander were killed in a fierce gunfight at Dadsara village near the south Kashmir's Tral town in Pulwama district, 30 km from Srinagar.
According to authorities, Ghulam Nabi Khan alias Amir Khan had a wall built on encroached land as an extension to his house in Liver Pahalgam in the south Kashmir district.
Two army troopers were killed and another wounded in a mistaken identity shootout in south Kashmir Tral in Pulwama district late Tuesday evening.
Kashmir is currently under the grip of 'Chillai-Kalan' -- the 40-day harshest winter period when a cold wave grips the region
'This is for the first time that a strong, solid evidence-based investigation has happened.' 'It can meet international standards and put the onus on the Pakistanis.'
The anti-terrorist operation was still in progress.
Facing flak over its alleged link with arrested Lashkar-e-Tayiba (LeT) terrorist Talib Hussain Shah, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday issued a show-cause notice to party's Jammu Minority Morcha president Sheikh Bashir after an order purportedly written by him about the appointment of Shah as official of the unit emerged on social media platforms.
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.
A 23-year-old youth was killed allegedly in firing by the security forces during a protest demonstration in Pulwama district of South Kashmir, police said.
As the security forces were engaged in the counter-militancy operation, over 100 protesters pelted stones on them, an army official said.
"He was one of the oldest militant and wanted for several terror-related crimes," police told PTI.
Curfew was on Sunday lifted from many parts of Kashmir Valley while authorities announced relaxation of curfew in Srinagar city, where curbs had been re-imposed in the wee hours of Sunday, following incidents of stone pelting. Curfew has been lifted from Anantnag, Pulwama, Kulgam, Shopian and Awantipora towns in south Kashmir and Handwara town in north Kashmir, a police spokesman said. While curfew has been lifted from Budgam district in central Kashmir.
Troops of 55 Rashtriya Rifles and the police launched a joint operation at a village in Pulwama district on Friday night.
The Kashmiri Pandit family that braved peak militancy in Jammu and Kashmir in the 1990s to stay put in the Valley was forced to migrate to Jammu after terrorists killed its breadwinner Sanjay Sharma.
The aim of his visit was to explore how financial institutions can be co-opted in reviving the local economy.
Corps Commander Lt Gen K J S Dhillon of the Chinar Corps also requested mothers of Kashmiri militants to persuade their sons to surrender.
