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.
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.
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.
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.
While pitching for better ties between India and Pakistan, she called for immediate peace on the borders.
The two days come in the midst of the Chaitra Navratra -- a nine-day period of fasting and spiritual importance for the prime minister.
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.
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
'The lush green of Kashmir was exactly like the postcards and posters I had seen growing up.'
The Army is retaliating strongly and effectively, the spokesman said.
'You have not understood the heart of the Indian Air Force,' notes IAF Veteran Nitin Welde.
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.
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.
Large swathes of the country reeled under heatwave conditions on Tuesday with Churu in Rajasthan recording a high of 48 degree Celsius.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Eight militants were killed across Jammu and Kashmir in three different gunfights between security forces and militants Wednesday.
Jammu woke up to a tense morning on Saturday as the Army was called in to help the administration in maintaining law and order after violent protests over the Amarnath land row.The Army was called in Jammu city and other curfew bound areas of the district and continues to remain deployed along with police and paramilitary forces.The Army was deployed in the adjoining district of Samba since Friday evening, in the wake of violence here in which two persons died.
The country is all set for the second round of elections on April 18 in the ongoing seven-phase Lok Sabha polls that will elect 543 members to the lower house of Parliament. Going to polls in the second phase will be 95 seats in 12 states and one Union Territory. Here is a look at some of the big names contesting in phase two of Lok Sabha elections.
This is the first case in the Valley in which Indian Army personnel have been awarded life terms on these charges.
A senior Congressman from South India told Rediff.com, "This is a big setback for Rahul Gandhi's strategy of stalling Parliament. Sushma has not resigned and Khargeji is speaking and debating. What does it say about our stand in this session?"
The Army has appointed Lt Gen NPS Hira as Deputy Chief of Army Staff with effect from March 14.
While the Congress will contest the Jammu and Udhampur Lok Sabha seats, National Conference will fight from Srinagar.
Two of the terrorists belonged to Hizb-ul-Mujahideen.
Ignoring the separatists' call to shun the vote, electors in the five districts emulated the trend seen in the first phase by turning up at polling booths in large numbers at 8 am, the scheduled start of voting. It turned out to be an impressive 71.28 per cent turnout in the second phase.
As many as 48 ministers of National Democratic Allaince government were in the fray in the general elections.
It is necessary to have a dramatic increase in the number of rapid tests for COVID-19 conducted on a large number of people and that should become the basis for estimating the morbidity and mortality due to COVID-19, not relying only on hospital reports, says Professor K Srinivasan.
Shops downed shutters, educational institutions were shut and fewer vehicles plied on roads as government offices reported thin attendance in the state.
The Army is not in favour of a ceasefire with militants in Jammu and Kashmir during the month of Ramzan as they can pose a bigger security threat while merging with the civilian population.
Incessant rains have hampered the restoration work and it was diffcult to say when the highway could become traffic worthy.
Repeated violation of ceasefire and frequent infiltration attempts by terrorists will be in top agenda of the meeting between heads of border guards of India and Pakistan to be held in New Delhi next week.
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