Officials said the polling went off peacefully in all segments including special polling stations along the International Border and Line of Control (LoC) with no untoward incident reported from anywhere.
The heavily overcrowded matador van was on its way from Ghordi to Ramnagar with mostly college students and government employees, when it fell into a deep gorge near Dalsar area of the Ramnagar Tehsil.
The gunfight, lasting more than an hour, took place at Jaddan Bata village in the Kastigarh area around 2 am when the terrorists opened fire on a temporary camp established in a government school for the ongoing search operation, they said.
The Udhampur-based northern command is committed to eliminate the scourge of terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir, the Army said on Tuesday, as it paid tribute to four soldiers who died in a gunfight with heavily armed terrorists in Doda district.
Head constable Bashir Ahmad laid down his life and two officers -- a DSP and an assistant sub-inspector -- were injured in the encounter, he said, adding both the officers are stable.
They said police parties fanned out to find them amid reports that they had been abducted and killed by terrorists.
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.
Kashmir police chief Vijay Kumar has directed personnel to apprehend those responsible for the attack as soon as possible.
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.
The measure has been adopted to facilitate unhindered movement of security forces' convoys.
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.
A massive search operation is underway to flush out the terrorists, who are believed to have recently infiltrated from Pakistan, they said.
Here is a chronology of terror incidents in the region this year.
The manhunt for the terrorists responsible for the ambush in Jammu and Kashmir's Kathua district, which resulted in the tragic death of five army personnel, has led to the detention of a truck driver and 50 others for questioning, officials said on Wednesday.
Qasim, a Lashkar leader and terrorist, had planned the attack on a Border Security Force convoy in Udhampur on August 5.
One of the women later succumbed to injuries in the hospital.
Twenty four people died and 49 others were injured, five of them critically, when an overcrowded bus rolled down into a 300 feet deep gorge in Udhampur district of Jammu and Kashmir on Monday.
Trooper Rockey kept two heavily-armed militants, who attacked a security convoy in Udhampur, engaged and did not allow them to lob grenades on the bus full of BSF personnel.
Security forces and terrorists exchanged fire twice briefly within a span of four hours in a forest area in Jammu and Kashmir's Doda district, officials said on Wednesday.
Zahid Rasool Bhat, 19, a truck assistant had received 74 per cent burn injuries with another person on October 9 when a Kashmir-bound truck was attacked by a mob protesting against the beef party hosted by an independent MLA in the summer capital of Srinagar.
A massive operation is on to flush out the remaining holed-up terrorists.
In yet another arrest in the Udhampur attack, National Investigation Agency on Tuesday booked an alleged overground worker of banned LeT outfit who had transported four terrorists from one place in Kashmir to another after they infiltrated into the Valley.
Jammu and Kashmir Police on Thursday claimed that terrorists involved in Wednesday's Udhampur attack on a BSF convoy were trained 'fidayeens' and backed by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence.
A hunt has been launched for a businessman who is alleged to have paid money to Mohammed Naved Yakub, a Pakistani terrorist who was caught alive last week after the Udhampur terror strike in which two Border Security Force personnel were killed.
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.
Abdullah said they are claiming that terrorism is over but the ground situation shows that it has increased in otherwise peaceful Jammu region.
Several deaths were reported across the country due to rain-related incidents like lightning strikes and drowning.
The father said that the the Lashkar and the fauj was after them.
The encounter took place when the troops of Rashtriya Rifles and Special Operations Group of J&K Police launched a joint cordon and search operation at Dhari Gote Urarbagi in Desa forest belt, some 55 km from Doda town, late Monday evening, the officials said.
Terror group People's Anti-Fascist Front claimed responsibility for his murder.
A massive manhunt is underway for three foreign terrorists, possibly of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, responsible for the deadly attack on pilgrims in Jammu and Kashmir's Reasi that resulted in the loss of nine lives, including a two-year-old, officials involved in the investigation said on Monday.
The vehicle, a Tavera, was on its way to Jammu from Srinagar and it fell into a 300-foot gorge at the Battery Cheshma area of the district around 1.15 am, they said.
In the first targeted killing of the year, terrorists on Wednesday shot dead a worker from Punjab while another sustained injuries in Habba Kadal area of Srinagar, officials said.
Although the Supreme Court has mandated the Centre to conduct the polls by the end of September, a spate of terrorist attacks in J&K could cause delays.
A special Court on Monday allowed the National Investigation Agency's plea seeking its permission to conduct polygraph test on suspected Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative Showkat Ahmed Bhat, arrested in connection with Udhampur terror attack case.
The body of a junior commissioned officer was retrieved from a stream in the Poshana area of Surankote late Saturday evening, while the body of a second soldier was found this morning as the water level started receding in the district.
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.
'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 attack took place near Shashidhar in the evening when the vehicles were moving towards Sanai Top in the district's Surankote area.
