General T N Raina was an iconic Indian military leader whose contributions to the nation should be more widely known, notes Lieutenant General Syed Ata Hasnain (retd).
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has complained to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh against the army's public criticism of him and his government, following which Northern Army Commander Lieutenant General B S Jaswal has tendered an apology. The controversy arose after the army's Northern Command based in Udhampur issued a press release on the encounter that took place on November 29 on the outskirts of Srinagar.
The army on Monday said Pakistan had a "direct role" in the mutilation of a soldier's body along the Line of Control in Machhil sector of Kupwara district on November 22.
This assurance was given by home minister Amit Shah to a delegation of sarpanch and panch from Jammu and Kashmir who met him on Tuesday.
The work on India's longest road tunnel has begun, with engineers blasting a part of a hill to make way for the construction of the 9-km-long Chenani-Nashri tunnel in Udhampur district in Jammu and Kashmir.
One person was killed and three others were injured in a powerful blast inside a car in Udhampur town of Jammu region on Monday morning.A senior police officer said the car had been parked near a roadside tea-stall on the strategic Jammu Srinagar national highway.A milk vendor was killed on the spot while three others, who were having tea at the stall, were injured in the blast. Senior police officers are already at the spot, collecting details," the officer said.
A local court on Wednesday awarded life imprisonment to three Hizbul Mujahideen militants involved in killing of two women in Udhampur district a decade ago.
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.
The apology came close on the heels of Omar complaining to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh about Army's public criticism of the state governemnt's policies to deal with militancy.
A villager was washed away in flash floods while 19 others were rescued from the swirling waters in Jammu and Poonch districts early on Friday morning.
Six armed foreign militants were killed on Monday and three armymen lost their lives in a fierce gunbattle that broke out along the Line of Control in Kupwara sector of Jammu and Kashmir.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was on Monday named as the Leader of the House in Rajya Sabha, while Congress veteran Ghulam Nabi Azad was declared the Leader of the Opposition.
Indian cricket captain Mahindra Singh Dhoni and his teammate Suresh Raina, on a trip to seek the blessings Mata Vaishnodevi ahead of the World Cup, on Sunday could not make it to the cave shrine due to bad weather.
Barring Maharashtra, the poll percentage in rest of the states was in excess of 60 per cent while in Puducherry it was 80.47 per cent.
An army jawan was also injured in the encounter that began on Saturday night after troops launched a search operation in Khumhair forests of Handwara tehsil.
There will be eight more phases of Panchayat polls in Jammu and Kashmir.
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.
Lieutenant General P C Bhardwaj, a special operations expert, on Thursday took over as Vice Chief of the Army. Lt Gen Bhardwaj, who was commissioned to the First Battalion Parachute Regiment in June 1970, was hitherto the Udhampur-based Army Northern Command General Officer Commanding-in-Chief.
The army early on Thursday foiled an infiltration bid by terrorists on the Line of Control in Poonch district of Jammu region.
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.
While pitching for better ties between India and Pakistan, she called for immediate peace on the borders.
On a tip-off, army and police launched a joint cordon and search operation in Larad area of Mahore tehsil, 107 km from Udhampur, on Monday morning
India on Sunday summoned Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit and lodged a strong protest over ceasefire violations by Pakistani troops along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir.
The two days come in the midst of the Chaitra Navratra -- a nine-day period of fasting and spiritual importance for the prime minister.
As the Indian Army reported its first case of the infection with a 34-year-old soldier testing positive in Leh, the Army said it has taken a series of precautionary measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus among the forces such as checking flu symptoms among soldiers on their return from leave and cancelling non-essential travel, conferences and recruitment drives.
The Army is retaliating strongly and effectively, the spokesman said.
'The lush green of Kashmir was exactly like the postcards and posters I had seen growing up.'
There were no reports of presence of the Taliban in Jammu and Kashmir, a top army commander has said, but maintained that the troops remain well-prepared to tackle threats of any nature from any terrorist group.
The election is scheduled for February 13. Their names have reportedly been cleared by the coalition government of the NC and the Congress.
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.
A senior police officer told rediff.com that the mishap occurred when the driver lost control of the bus, which was on its way to Udhampur from Katra.
The Jammu-Srinagar National Highway remained closed for traffic for the third day on Friday due to fresh landslides triggered by heavy rains, leaving over 500 Kashmir-bound passengers stranded.
'You have not understood the heart of the Indian Air Force,' notes IAF Veteran Nitin Welde.
Large swathes of the country reeled under heatwave conditions on Tuesday with Churu in Rajasthan recording a high of 48 degree Celsius.
They were stranded on a concrete platform at the bottom of a pillar of an under-construction structure to create a lake at Baghwati Nagar, they said.
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.
Veerander Singh had a verbal duel with company commander Inspector Snoop following which he opened fire at him and another jawan identified as Parveen Kumar near the cave shrine, leaving both of them in a critical condition, DIG (Reasi Udhampur Range) Alok Puri told PTI. The jawan later committed suicide by shooting himself with the self loading rifle, he added.
A suspected Lashkar-e-Tayiba terrorist was killed on Thursday in a brief gunfight with security forces in a village in Pulwama district of south Kashmir, police said.
Eight militants were killed across Jammu and Kashmir in three different gunfights between security forces and militants Wednesday.
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