Several hotels in Kashmir’s iconic Pahalgam were inundated due to flash floods triggered by two cloudbursts in south Kashmir's Anantnag district on Saturday night that also damaged homes, roads and farmland, disrupted essential services and prompted the evacuation of tourists and pilgrims, officials said.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Thursday called for a fundamental shift in Jammu and Kashmir tourism policy, advocating a transition from volume-driven tourism to a sustainable, value-based model that protects the region's fragile ecology while ensuring long-term economic growth.
A top commander of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Zakir Ganai, was killed in an encounter with security forces in south Kashmir's Shopian district on Wednesday, marking a major breakthrough in an intelligence-based operation.
Taking cognizance of alleged irregularities in on-spot registration of Amarnath pilgrims, the authorities in Kashmir's Ganderbal district suspended four teachers, officials said on Wednesday.
Kashmir’s chief cleric Mirwaiz Umar Farooq on Monday called for keeping the Amarnath Yatra free from politics, saying Kashmir has a long tradition of hospitality towards pilgrims while urging the administration to ensure both pilgrims' safety and minimal disruption to local life.
The minister highlighted the government of India’s commitment to protecting farmers’ interests under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi.
Highlighting ‘saffron’ as a symbol of Kashmir’s identity, Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Thursday announced that the central government will establish a tissue culture lab and nursery to boost saffron production in Kashmir.
Amid unprecedented security measures, the first batch of approximately 5,500 pilgrims was flagged off from here to the mountain cave shrine of Amarnath in Kashmir by Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Wednesday.
A new Kashmir-centric political alliance, the People’s Alliance for Change (PAC), led by People’s Conference chief Sajad Lone, was launched on Monday in Srinagar. Described as the beginning of a broader political alternative in Jammu and Kashmir, the alliance aims to address what its leaders call a “moral and political necessity” in the region.
The failure of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) defence ministers to adopt a joint statement exposes once again the brittle consensus within the bloc on fundamental issues like terrorism.
