A few years ago when the ice-lingam did not form because the glacial cover atop Amarnath had depleted and the snow cover around too had vanished thus no melt water dropping into the cave was possible, the custodians of the cave shrine secretly allowed creation of an artificial Shivling. This with a view that thousands of devotees who

“This is an alarming new trend in drug addiction,” said Dr Jagdish Thappa, head of department at Jammu’s Government Psychiatry Hospital.

The Amarnath pilgrimage has been suspended again in view of hostile weather conditions prevailing along both shorter but steep Baltal and traditional Pahalgam routes and elsewhere in the hilly region,

As many as 25,956 devotees embarked on arduous journey through rugged mountains to pay obeisance to Shivlingam at the 12,729-foot-high Amarnath cave-shrine on the first day of the two-and-half-month long yatra on Wednesday.

Thousands of Hindu devotees, including women and children, have relocated to Pahalgam and Baltal, two base-camps of Amarnath pilgrimage, days ahead of a cavalcade of 73 vehicles carrying the first batch of 2,096 yatries was officially flagged off in Jammu on Tuesday.

In a significant development, a fervent appeal was made on Friday from the pulpit of Srinagar’s Grand Mosque to Kashmiri pandits, who fled the Valley following the outbreak of separatist violence more than two decades ago, to return home and “live here with their Muslim brethren without any fear”.

In a significant development, a fervent appeal was made on Friday from the pulpit of Srinagar’s Grand Mosque to Kashmiri pandits, who fled the Valley following the outbreak of separatist violence more than two decades ago, to return home and “live here with their Muslim brethren without any fear”.

It seems all is not well within the so-called moderate faction of the separatist Hurriyat Conference alliance even after it revoked its earlier decision suspending one of its founding constituents, Jammu and Kashmir Itehad-ul-Muslimeen, over its patron moulvi Abbas Ansari’s holding a meeting with the Centre’s interlocutors in April 2011.

“How would this world be like without women; give it a thought,” cautions one of the hoardings put up at busy intersections in Srinagar as part of a massive drive launched by the Jamm

“Regardless of what the extremist elements of both sides want the world to believe, there is still hope for the Valley and Kashmiriyat,” said chief minister Omar Abdullah in a tweet soon after Aasha Jee became the first Kashmiri pandit woman to be elected a panch from the Muslim-majority Valley on Monday night.