J&K

Srinagar, Dec 10 (PTI) The Jammu and Kashmir High Court has quashed the detention of two people under the controversial Public Safety Act (PSA), officials said on Tuesday.

Justice Ali Mohammad Magray passed orders, quashing the detention under the PSA of Mohammad Ashraf Ganaie of Sopore and Imtiyaz Pahloo of Srinagar, on Monday, the officials said.

While Ganaie was detained under the PSA for his alleged involvement in timber smuggling, Pahloo was detained under the controversial law for his alleged involvement in stone-pelting incidents, they said.

Srinagar, Dec 7 (PTI) Over 400 freshly-trained youths from Jammu and Kashmir were on Saturday recruited into the Army at a passing-out-parade here, the first such parade of the force after the erstwhile state became the Union territory.

The passing-out-parade of the soldiers, belonging to different areas of Jammu and Kashmir, was conducted at the regimental centre of Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry (JAKLI) at Rangreth in the outskirts of the city here, an Army official said.

New Delhi, Dec 6 (PTI) "We are not criminals," says Lok Sabha member and National Conference president Farooq Abdullah in a letter to Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on his personal letterhead which mentions his residence as "sub-jail".

Abdullah, under detention since August 5 and subsequently booked under the stringent Public Safety Act (PSA) on September 17, is at present at his residence in Gupkar which has been declared as a sub-jail.

Jammu, Dec 4 (PTI) Jammu and Kashmir is witnessing a shortfall of 408 megawatts (MW) of power supply during the thick of winter, officials said on Wednesday.

The union territory is getting only 1,959 MW electricity against a demand of 2,367 MW, Commissioner-Secretary of Power Development Department Hirdesh Kumar said.

Against the average yearly restricted demand of 938 MW in Jammu region, the department provided 819 MW electricity, resulting in a shortfall of 120 MW, he said.

New Delhi, Dec 1 (PTI) A day after its first defence and foreign ministerial dialogue with India, Japan on Sunday hoped that a peaceful resolution will be found to the Kashmir issue.

A Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said his government looked at the situation in Kashmir very carefully and that it was aware of "longstanding differences" of views on the issue.

Srinagar, Nov 21 (PTI) A mentally unstable Pakistan-occupied Kashmir resident, who had inadvertently crossed over to the Indian territory, was returned to Pakistani authorities on Thursday as a goodwill gesture, police said.

"Today, Kupwara police repatriated a Pakistani national identified as Shabir Ahmad, a resident of Pajkote," a police spokesman said.

He was handed over to Pakistani authorities via Teetwal in Jammu and Kashmir's frontier district, Kupwara, he said.

Srinagar, Nov 22 (PTI) Most shops and other business establishments in Kashmir were closed on Friday, the third consecutive day of a Valley-wide shutdown following a brief semblance of normalcy.

On Wednesday, posters warning shopkeepers against opening their shutters as well as public transport operators appeared at several places in the city and elsewhere in the Valley, officials said.

This ended the sense of the last few weeks that life was getting back to normal.

Srinagar, Nov 20, GANASHAKTI: Several areas in Kashmir, including parts of Srinagar, witnessed a complete shutdown on Wednesday after posters warning shopkeepers against the opening of shops appeared overnight, officials said.

There was a complete shutdown in several areas in downtown (Old City) of Srinagar on Wednesday as shopkeepers did not open their business establishments in the morning, they said.

The officials said the shutdown was also witnessed in Ganderbal town in central Kashmir and Anantnag town in south Kashmir.

New Delhi, Nov 20, GANASHAKTI: There have been 5,161 "preventive arrests", including politicians, separatists and stone pelters, in Kashmir Valley since August 4, the day before Jammu and Kashmir's special status under Article 370 was revoked, the government informed Parliament on Wednesday.

The Centre also announced its decision to bifurcate the state into the union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh on August 5.

New Delhi, Nov 20 (PTI) All schools and colleges are now open in Jammu and Kashmir and there is 98 per cent attendance in these institutions, the government told Parliament on Wednesday.

It asserted that all hospitals and healthcare centres are also "fully" operational.

"Government of Jammu and Kashmir has reported that after initial restrictions, all the schools and colleges are now open in Jammu and Kashmir including the Kashmir valley," Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy said in a written statement to Rajya Sabha.