Senior BJP leader and the Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley on Thursday said those who term speeches of anti-nationalists as freedom of expression are objecting to political parties hoisting the tricolour in certain parts of the country. The BJP youth wing will be hoisting flag at Lal Chowk in Srinagar on January 26 despite Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah urging the party not to, fearing it will create problem in the state.

In another instance of rage over a trivial issue resulting in a murder, a 30-year-old shopkeeper was stabbed to death by two youth in his shop at Samaipur Badli in outer Delhi on Tuesday evening over a trivial issue.

Though describing India’s track record on releasing of Pakistani prisoners better than the neighbouring country, the Supreme Court on Wednesday felt that there was still the need for further improvement while directing the government to release forthwith 61 Pakistan nationals whose identity had been fully established.

During the proceedings in the case of the three siblings who were allegedly exploited by their school cab driver for over a year, a city court has found that even their mother had subjected them to severe physical violence making their life miserable.

One of the three members of the team of interlocutors on Jammu and Kashmir, appointed by the government, has said that there is a “positive change” in the atmosphere in the state. The member, Mr M.M. Ansari, has further said that “many encouraging things are happening, lot of changes have taken place and lots of good things have taken place”. He said this shortly after the interlocutors met Union home minister P. Chidambaram on Wednesday.

The Azadpur Mandi onion traders on Wednesday called off their strike following talks with chief minister Sheila Dikshit who promised to look into their grievances. The traders assured the chief minister that the onion prices would start coming down following arrival of fresh supply.

The ministry of defence (MoD) on Wednesday said it had received a report from the Army’s Pune-based Southern Command on alleged illegal transfer of land to a pharmaceutical company at Kandivili, Mumbai, and added the report is “under examination” even as Army sources indicated that a CBI inquiry could be ordered.

The CBI, which is probing the 2G scam, has started collecting details of certain hawala operators based in other Indian cities, who were allegedly in touch with the two Delhi-based suspected hawala op

The demolition of a mosque that had allegedly been built illegally over DDA land led to strong protests by local residents in Nizamuddin area on Wednesday morning. The police had to resort to use of tear gas and batons to disperse the crowd, which damaged more than a dozen vehicles. Four policemen, including a sub-inspector, were injured as the incident led to traffic jam for more than three hours on Mathura Road.

Srinagar’s old quarter, once the hotbed of Kashmiri insurgency and where the population’s protracted political discontent often finds expression on the streets with irate crowds of mainly youth clashing with the police and paramilitary forces was turned into an altogether different theatre for the supposed rivals to meet head-on on Wednesday.