Congress president and United Progressive Alliance Chairman Sonia Gandhi [Images] turned 60 on Friday.

Keeping with her decision not to celebrate any national festival or her birthday this year to express solidarity with the victims of the October 8 earthquake.

She visited Jammu and Kashmir's [Images] quake-hit area Sultan Daki, 120 km northwest of Srinagar [Images].

Wearing the traditional Kashmiri Pheran in green and with her head covered with a cream colour shawl, Sonia flew to the forward areas of Poonch, 250 km northwest of Jammu, to spend three hours with the tremor affected people.

She later flew to the forward area of Uri in north Kashmir where large-scale devastation had taken place in October earthquake.

The Congress also did not organise any celebration.

This is her second visit to the quake-hit areas. She was the first national leader to visit the quake-ravaged areas in Kashmir on October 8.

Sonia with quake survivors in Sultan Daki

Photograph: Sajjad Hussain/AFP/Getty Images