The three-day Singhey-Khababs Spring Festival of Ladakh, previously known as Sindhu Darshan, began in the land of celebrations on Saturday.

Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh’s offer of conditional talks has failed to stimulate the Kashmiri separatists as they see in it “old wine in new bottle” and a mere “rhetoric.” “What is new in there?” asked chief Muslim cleric and leader of his faction of Hurriyat Conference Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, regretting the Indian leadership

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said here on Monday that the security forces in Jammu and Kashmir had been “strictly instructed” to respect citizens’ human rights.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday announced a slew of fresh economic measures and incentives for Jammu and Kashmir, including restoration of cuts of around Rs 400 crores in the state Plan outlay for 2009-10.

The Army announced Sunday it had relieved a colonel of his command and suspended a major for their alleged involvement in the recent staged encounter in the Machael sector, near the Line of Control, in which three Kashmiri youths lured there with the promise of jobs were shot dead.

The fake encounter killings sparked off widespread protests across Kashmir. While separatists seized the exposé towards invigorating their invective string, chief minister Omar Abdullah, also caught in the middle of criticism by the Opposition and human rights groups, said that the April 30 incident had put a question mark before all the claims about killings of terrorists and militants on the border by the security forces.

Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh will get off on what could have been a crucial 2-day visit of restive Jammu and Kashmir on Monday. He had recently indicated that making an effort to rope in “those who are outside the political mainstream provided they shun violence” would be the prime rendezvous in his itinerary.

The Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, on Saturday made a passionate appeal to the world leaders to come forward and make the 21st century violence-free. He said, “People in India live without any conflict. This is a good symbol. Let us make this century violence-free. I think it is the responsibility of the world leaders and the need of the hour to follow path of non-violence.”

An officer of the rank of major belonging to the Army’s 4 Rajput Battalion and four of his junior colleagues found involved in the April 30 staged gunfight near the Line of Control, in which three innocent Kashmiri youth were slain, are being brought here from their present deployment location in a couple of days to be handed over to the local police.

Army personnel averted a major tragedy in Turtuk area of Nubra valley close to the Line of Control (LoC) by evacuating school children trapped in a major landslide. The incident occurred on May 27 when the entire Ladakh region with Kashmir valley was experiencing heavy rains and snowfall in upper reaches.