The 434-km vital Srinagar-Leh road damaged by the recent flash floods and landslides triggered by cloudbursts has been restored after days of hectic work done by the engineers and men of the Army, Border Roads Organisation and allied agencies.

Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh’s “give peace a chance” appeal see-ms to have failed to create any impact in Kashmir Valley as the scenic region continues to simmer. Two persons were killed and eight others injured when the security forces opened fire to quell mob at Sarnal Laazbal in southern Anantnag city and at Narbal on the outskirts of summer capital Srinagar on Saturday.

Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah has announced 50,000 government jobs to be offered to the unemployed youth of the state whose number has already touched the four-lakh-mark. The move is also seen as the chief minister’s attempt to woo the youth often seen confronting the security forces on the streets of the Valley.

On yet another bloody Friday, at least four persons were killed and over a dozen others injured when the CRPF and state police opened fire on rock-throwing separatist mobs across the Kashmir Valley, in one case after an argument over whether curfew was in force in the area or not.

Even as normalcy returned to the Kashmir Valley on the first day of Ramzan on Thursday — exempted by the Hurriyat Conference from its week-long calendar of shutdowns and protests — an irate mob hurled stones at running vehicles on the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad Road to vent their anger over the alleged random arrests made by the police in the area overnight.

The United Nations is reported to have asked the Indian authorities to stop riot-boffin Rapid Action Front (RAF) from wearing the distinctive powder-blue helmets of the UN peacekeeping force.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s remark that restoration of greater autonomy to Jammu and Kashmir could be considered within the ambit of the Constitution may have enraged the BJP, VHP and like-minded parties and groups, but neither the remark nor his pledge that a solution to the state’s problems would be sought through “internal and external” dialogue and economic initiatives could impress the separatists, his actual audience.

With more bodies recovered by the rescuers, the death toll in last week’s cloudburst and resultant flash floods and mudslides in Leh and its neighbourhood rose to 185 on Wednesday.

Three French tourists, an Italian and a Spaniard were among the 170 people killed in last week’s flash floods and mudslides triggered by a cloudburst in Leh and its neighbourhood. Also, 16 Nepalese labourers and two Tibetans are reported to have perished in the catastrophe which flattened dozens of homes, government buildings, tourist cottages and hotels.

Kreeri, a township in Jammu and Kashmir’s Baramulla district, erupted on Tuesday when the locals found the body of a local youth, who was missing after his reported arrest by the police more than two weeks ago, buried at an isolated place in a neighbourhood area.