Speaking in chaste Urdu, the official language of Jammu and Kashmir, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh said here on Monday that the Centre had announced a slew of measures for economic development and

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh begins what could have been a crucial two-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir on Monday. He recently indicated that his key objective would be to rope in “those outside the political mainstream ... provided they shun violence”.

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.

Various Sikh organisations of Jammu and Kashmir have asked for a special package from Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh who is arriving here on a 2-day visit on Monday.

A human rights group — International People’s Tribunal on Human Rights in Indian-administered-Kashmir (IPTK) — has claimed that the “spectre of death and state violence” haunts Kashmiri civil society each day. “Violence is anticipated, experienced, and intimate to lives. There are those that are its direct targets and others that are concomitantly affected. Violence permeates daily life, regulates bodies and conditions behaviour,” it said here on Sunday.

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.”

This year’s Amarnath pilgrimage will commence from both Baltal and Pahalgam treks on July 1 and conclude on August 24, coinciding with Raksha Bandhan, it was formally announced here on Tuesday.

Army in a fierce gunfight killed four separatist militants in a forest area of Jammu and Kashmir’s north-western Baramulla district on Monday, officials here said.