Police in Srinagar have arrested a man from Kulgam district for allegedly providing logistical support to terrorists involved in the April 22 Pahalgham attack.
A turnout of about 59 percent -- the highest in the past seven elections -- was recorded in the first phase of assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday, Chief Electoral Officer P K Pole said, adding polling passed off peacefully.
Sixty-seven villages in Assam's Lakhimpur district have been battling flood waters for the last six months.
Rifleman Shakir Manzoor of 162 Battalion (TA) went missing on Sunday and his vehicle was found abandoned and burnt in south Kashmir's Kulgam.
'Where are the safer zones in Kashmir? We have to move out, drop our children at local schools and attend to our duties'
In the last three years, the Union Territory administration has invoked 311 (2)(c) of the Constitution to sack more than 50 employees, who were allegedly operating in shadows within the government and drawing a salary from the public exchequer, however, they were helping Pakistani terror outfits, providing logistics to terrorists, propagating terrorists' ideology, raising terror finances and furthering secessionist agenda, officials said.
Hundreds of Kashmiri Pandits employed in the Valley under the Prime Minister's package moved to Jammu last May following the killing of two colleagues -- Rahul Bhat and Rajini Bala -- by terrorists.
They also demanded immediate release of their pending salaries in view of the 'Maha Shivratri' festival, being observed later this week.
Abdul Hamid Najar, a resident of Mohiendpora area of Budgam in central Kashmir, was shot at and critically injured by terrorists in his native village on Sunday, the official said.
Scores of protesting Kashmiri Pandit prime minister's package employees on Monday reiterated their demand for relocation outside the valley, saying their worst fears have come true with the latest killing of a community member in Pulwama.
The Jammu and Kashmir administration has neither accepted nor rejected the demand but the protest had to be suspended as stopping of salaries is 'choking us financially', protesters affiliated to the All Migrant (Displaced) Employees Association Kashmir (AMEAK) said.
The meeting came after terrorists carried out a series of targeted killings in the Kashmir Valley that include non-Muslims, security personnel, an artist and local civilians.
The terrorist killed in Srinagar was a relative of one of the accused in the February 2019 suicide attack in Pulwama's Lethpora, in which 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel lost their lives.
In a searing attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Union government, Sena leader and MP Sanjay Raut also said that in view of Kashmiri Pandits once again fleeing from the Valley, 'Kashmir Files 2' should be made to show who is responsible for their current plight.
Kashmir is currently under the grip of 'Chillai-Kalan' -- the 40-day harshest winter period when a cold wave grips the region
This is the third killing of a local elected representative by militants in Jammu and Kashmir this month.
Amid unabated targeted killings in Kashmir, hundreds of government employees posted in the valley took out a march in Jammu on Thursday to demand their immediate transfer to their respective home districts.
Zeenat, considered as an improvised explosive device (IED) expert, was earlier associated with another terror group Hizbul Mujahideen.
A hunt is underway to nab the terrorists who carried out the attack.
Kashmir valley received the season's heaviest snowfall on Friday, throwing life out of gear and severing its road and air links with rest of the country.
Dar said he can't wait to join the Mumbai Indians family.
Terrorists killed a retired police officer in south Kashmir Kulgam district late on Tuesday night.
Three paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force troopers were killed while another was wounded in a fratricidal shootout inside a heavily guarded camp of the CRPF in South Kashmir's Kulgam town late on Sunday night.
In the first attack of its kind, militants on Monday attacked two armed cops of the Jammu and Kashmir police with sharp edged weapons in the Yaripora village of south Kashmir's Kulgam district and made good their escape along with the automatic weapons of the policemen.
At least two persons sustained bullet wounds and five others were injured in clashes between protesting mobs and security forces on Tuesday during the funeral of two terrorists killed in Monday's encounter in the Koimoh village of south Kashmir's Kulgam district.
Three persons, including two women, were killed in two separate strikes by militants in south Kashmir on Sunday night. A senior police officer said four militants barged into the house of Mohammad Hussain Gorsi in the Nanmarg forest area of Damhal Hanjipora in south Kashmir's Kulgam district and fired indiscriminately, killing his 40-year old wife and 19-year daughter on the spot. Gorsi managed to escape unhurt.
In the second encounter within two days in south Kashmir, one terrorist was killed and three security men injured in an ongoing gun battle in the Tangmarg village of south Kashmir's Kulgam district on Wednesday evening.
Terrorists shot at and critically wounded a prominent Communist Party of India-Marxist activist in south Kashmir's Kulgam district on Thursday evening.
A bank employee from Rajasthan was shot dead on Thursday by terrorists in Kulgam district of Jammu and Kashmir, officials said.
A grenade was lobbed by a youth at an election rally being addressed by a People's Democratic Party candidate in Noorabad Assembly seat of south Kashmir's Kulgam district.
The Congress will make it the main issue when its Bharat Jodo Yatra led by Rahul Gandhi reaches Jammu and Kashmir early next year.
"We have killed the Hizbul Mujaheedin district commander Sajad Ahmed Bhat alias Tahir Maqsood and three other militants. With their elimination, we have almost wiped out the entire group of Hizbul militants operating in Kulgam," S M Sahai, Kashmir inspector general of police said.
Defence spokesman Lt. Col. A K Mathur said Sofi had been killed in a cross firing incident between the troops and the militants. Col Mathur, however, said the army is also investigating the incident.
Capping a visit that attracted controversy and opposition ire, EU parliamentarians visiting Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday termed Article 370 an internal issue of India and said they stand by the country in its fight against terrorism.
Four army men, including a Major, and an equal number of militants were on Tuesday killed while eight other security personnel and a civilian were injured in two separate encounters in Kashmir, officials said.
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.
Admitting that several party workers, most of them lower-rung activists, have resigned over the last few days following the recent attacks on BJP panchayat members and sarpanches, a BJP leader said some were from Budgam district in central Kashmir.
Kashmir remained cut off from rest of the country for the fourth consecutive day on Wednesday as the arterial Jammu-Srinagar national highway and the Mughal road remained closed, while air traffic was suspended due to heavy snowfall across the valley.
Normal life continued to remain affected in Kashmir for the 83rd straight day on Thursday due to the separatists' call for shut down.
Officials said on condition of anonymity that the situation could be slipping out of their hands.
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