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.
While answering a reporter's question about Kashmir, he said that he would repeat the statement he made last August about it at a news conference when he visited Pakistan as the president-elect.
Expressing concern over the snow balling of new Covid- 19 infections in Kashmir as worrying, the MPs in a statement said that the administration has failed to learn lessons from first wave of Covid-19 to improve its response to the emerging new Covid-19 peak in Kashmir. They stated that people are yet to tide over the rampage induced by Covid-19 and the subsequent failed lockdowns.
"The slain militants belonged to Al-Badr, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Ansar Ghazwatul Hind (AGUH) outfits. Seven of them belonged to AGUH including the group's chief, 3 to Al-Badr and 2 to LeT", Dilbagh Singh told reporters.
Efforts were made to save the mosque and no explosives or rocket launchers were fired to neutralize the terrorists, IGP Kashmir Vijay Kumar said.
The film policy of J&K provides for single window clearance, security and world-class facilities to the film-makers coming to the UT, the Lt Governor maintained.
