The first phase of rail service between Anantnag and Budgam districts was inaugurated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on October 11, 2008. The second phase of the train between Budgam and Baramulla was flagged off by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi on February 14, 2009, followed by the third phase between Anantnag and Qazigund by the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on October 28, 2009.

Srinagar, February 15
Fresh snowfall in the upper reaches and rain across the plains led to an increase in the night temperature across the Valley.

While night temperature at most places had remained sub-zero the night before, snow and rainfall shot the minimum temperatures above the freezing point last night.

Minimum temperature in Srinagar city rose to 2.7 °C, an official of the Meteorological Department said. Similarly, Qazigund, the gateway town to Kashmir, recorded 1.2 °C minimum temperature while the border town of Kupwara saw a low of 0.7 °C.

Tourist resort Pahalgam in south Kashmir recorded 0.5 °C minimum temperature while the area received 7.2 mm snow and rainfall throughout the course of the day till 5.30 pm, the official said.

Qazigund recorded 8.4 mm rainfall while Kupwara recorded 4.2 mm rainfall till 5.30 pm. The summer capital of the state recorded 3.0 mm rainfall, the official said.

While the night temperature shot up, day temperature on the other hand took a further dip. Srinagar recorded 6.3°C maximum temperature as compared to 9.9 °C yesterday.

Qazigund, Kupwara and Pahalgam recorded 5.1, 4.6 and 5.0 °C maximum temperatures, respectively.

The Ladakh region also saw an increase in night temperature. Leh recorded 6.4 °C maximum temperature while Kargil recorded 2.0 °C. The minimum temperature recorded at Leh and Kargil were -10.0 and -9.0 °C, respectively.

The department has forecast light rainfall in the Valley tomorrow. The maximum temperature in Srinagar tomorrow is expected to remain around 9.0 °C.

Meanwhile, one-way traffic continued to ply on the Srinagar-Jammu national highway, Kashmir’s only surface link to the rest of the country. A traffic police official said traffic plied from the Valley to Jammu today.

Srinagar, February 15
Minister for Public Enterprises Peerzada Mohammad Sayeed and Minister for Tourism Ghulam Ahmad Mir visited Anantnag district of South Kashmir and took stock of the present law and order situation.

The ministers visited the District Hospital, Anantnag, and took stock of the facilities being provided to the patients and their attendants in the hospital. The hospital authorities informed the ministers that a sufficient stock of the drugs was available in the hospital for meeting any eventuality besides the staff, which include doctors and paramedics who were also available to provide emergency services to the patients.

Directing for providing ambulances to the patients, the ministers asked the hospital authorities to take strong care in ferrying patients from their residences to hospitals and back particularly in view of non-availability of transport on the roads.

A review meeting of the essentials in the district was conducted by the ministers. It was told in the meeting that about 93 per cent of the stock had been lifted from the FCI godowns out of which about 70 per cent had been distributed among the consumers at 450 sale centres in the district. Deputy Director Consumer Affairs & Price Distribution told the ministers that during the curfew days the essentials were being provided to the general masses at evening hours. He said about 1,20,000 litres of kerosene had been distributed.

Srinagar, Febryary 15
Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS), Soura, Srinagar, has denied that the Valley is under the threat of swine flu scare, which was reported in some newspapers last week.

SKIMS Director Dr Showkat Zargar said there was no need to panic as the Valley was not vulnerable to swine flu infection. “The increased respiratory infections experienced are not swine flu symptoms, but the routine health problems experienced in cold weather. Nearly every house has one or the other member affected by a respiratory infection,” Dr Zargar said.

He added that influenza viral infection was just one such virus and that influenza infections increased during these months in temperate climate areas.

“These infections must have been prevalent previously also, but we are aware only because of the available testing facilities that help us to institute treatment if needed. The attention of the people is also drawn to the fact that flu related illness are prevalent throughout Europe, America and Northern and western India.”

Doctors posted at the hospital said Kashmir was less vulnerable to swine flu threats as compared to the rest of the India.

“Swine flu (pandemic flu) is mostly a self-limiting viral illness that results in fever and upper respiratory symptoms. Generally no treatment is required and only sick patients need to be admitted, if at all. The high level of pandemic cases attributed to H1N1 infection in 2009 was struck down long back,” a doctor said.

However, doctors advised adoption of routine infection control measures, which include social distancing, rest, reducing contact with fellows and adequate cover of cough and sneeze.

“The mode of spread is by droplets and simple measures are effective in containing of the infection. There is simply no reason to panic. This is true of influenza as of any other respiratory infective illness,” the doctors said.

Srinagar, February 15
While tourists and locals usually visit Gulmarg for skiing in the winters or a Gondola ride, hot air balloon ride is an added attraction at the resort these days.

Even though such a ride can also be taken on the banks of the Dal Lake here, the view from the top is a completely different experience in Gulmarg, as per the tourists.

“It is a great experience and the view from top gives a completely different feel of this place,” said Ashraf Merchant, a tourist from Mumbai.

Another tourist said “I have taken hot balloon rides at many places outside Jammu and Kashmir, but in Gulmarg, the scenery from the top leaves one spellbound. One gets the feel of looking at an ocean of snow.”

While the hot air balloon service was started last month, a tourism official said they were hopeful that it would become popular gradually. “It is a new thing here and the service has been launched by the Indian Institute of Skiing & Mountaineering (IISM). Even though many tourists have already started taking rides, we are hopeful that the hot air balloon ride will get more popular,” he said.

Principal IISM, JS Dhillon said the service had been launched on January 21 and around 15 tourists were coming to take rides on a daily basis. “The number of people taking this ride at present may not be that much. But the service was launched recently so it would become popular gradually,” he said.

Dhillon said the IISM had introduced ballooning to make Gulmarg a world class adventure destination and also to train the local youth so that they could promote hot air ballooning in other parts of the state.

“The balloon will continue to fly in Gulmarg during the winters. It will train some local youth in operating the balloon. The balloon flight has added a new charm to the winters of the Gulmarg,” he added.

Kupwara, February 15
After a relaxation in curfew allowed movement of people for two consecutive days, a strict curfew today confined most of people indoors in north Kashmir. A large number of police and paramilitary CRPF policemen were seen patrolling major towns of north Kashmir, enforcing the restrictions.

Holding automatic weapons and carrying the lathis and shields, the policemen did not allow any movement in major towns of north Kashmir.

Early this morning, police vehicles moved out in various towns and villages making announcement of curfew over public address system. “Anybody trying to violate the restrictions will face stern action,” the policemen warned people over the public address system. The policmen also manned roads leading to villages and nobody was allowed to move.

Defying restrictions, a group of youth clashed with policemen near the Regipora bridge in Kupwara, but they were chased away after some time.

Barricades mostly the concertina wires were put on all major roads in Kupwara, Handwara and Baramulla towns to block the movement of traffic. The stricter restrictions deprived most of people from offering Friday prayers in major mosques, but many people offered the prayers in mosques inside villages. “Policemen did not allow us to move to Kupwara as we were forced to offer Friday prayers in local mosque,” complained a group of people from Ticker, near Kupwara.

Reports from Handwara and Baramulla said heavy contingents of the police and the CRPF manning the markets and streets strictly enforced the restrictions. Most of people in north Kashmir, reports said watched news channels to know the latest happenings in the Valley. “The restrictions were very harsher today and most of people in our village remained confined in doors for the whole day. We watched the news channels to know the latest developments in Valley, but most of the national channels repeatedly broadcast news of multi-crore chopper scam hitting the nation,” said Fayaz Ahmad of Trehgam, eight kms from Kupwara.

Most of the attendants and patients remained stranded at major hospitals in the district due to stricter restrictions. 

Srinagar, February 15
One person died and another was injured in two separate road accidents in the Kashmir Valley.

A car hit and injured a pedestrian at Bonigam village near the south Kashmir’s Qazigund town. The man identified as Bashir Ahmad Dar, a resident of Bonigam, was shifted to a hospital in Qazigund for treatment where doctors declared him brought dead, a police spokesman said. The body of deceased was handed over to his family. A case has been registered.

In south Kashmir Pampore town, an Auto turned turtle near Drangbal on the National Highway resulting in injuries to Bilal Ahmad Sheikh of Chandrigam village of Tral. The injured has been shifted to a hospital for treatment, the spokesman said.

Srinagar, February 15
A senior leader of the Hardline Hurriyat Conference today said the group had extended the shutdown call for the Kashmir Valley to two more days till Sunday to demand the return of Afzal Guru’s body.

Mohammad Ashraf Sehrai, the acting chairman of the hardline group, said the decision had been taken to extend the shutdown for two days till Sunday.

He said there would be no shutdown on Monday.

The Valley had remained closed in the wake of the multiple shutdowns called by several separatist groups and the curfew imposed by the state government.

The region had remained tense in the wake of the secret hanging of 2001 Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru at New Delhi’s Tihar jail, where he was later buried.

The separatist groups and Afzal’s family had demanded that the Afzal’s body be returned to his family so they could perform his last rites as per their wish. Sehrai said the future protest course would be decided on Monday by the hardline separatist group’s leader Syed Ali Geelani, who is in New Delhi. “The first phase of shutdown will end on Monday.

Geelani will decide what is to be done next,” Sehrai said.

The separatist leader criticised the government for imposing curfew across the region. “No democracy does this. They are giving an impression that they are waging a war against the entire population. They are not even allowed mourning,” he said.

The hardline Hurriyat in the past had warned that Afzal’s hanging would lead to a “storm” in the region.

The next two shutdowns will take the number of days of closure to nine since Afzal’s hanging.