Briefing December 7-13, 2025

JAMMU KASHMIR

The Lt Governor Manoj Sinha administration has announced a revised ex gratia framework for casualties and injuries related to law and order duties in Jammu and Kashmir. Families of domicile CAPF personnel killed either within or outside the UT will receive Rs 25 lakh, the same amount allotted to families of local defence personnel who fall in the line of duty within Jammu and Kashmir. For domicile defence personnel who die outside the UT, and for non-local CAPF and defence personnel, the ex gratia amount has been set at Rs 5 lakh. Police personnel, SPOs, and non-local forces will also receive Rs 5 lakh, while magistrates and ex-servicemen killed on duty will get Rs 2 lakh. Permanent disability attracts assistance of Rs 75,000, and partial disability Rs 10,000. Civilians, including surrendered militants and informers, will receive Rs 1 lakh on death and scaled compensation for injuries. Property damage from blasts, sabotage, or cross-border shelling will be compensated up to 50 per cent of the loss, subject to set caps.

In the last five years, Jammu and Kashmir has deleted 49,810 ration cards, including 33,677 in 2021, 2,927 in 2022, 5,403 in 2023, 4,767 in 2024, and 3,036 in 2025, as part of a nationwide beneficiary verification under PMGKAY.

SRINAGAR

For over a week, Srinagar has been gripped by an unusual, self-imposed curfew after two juvenile black bears strayed from the Dara forests into the city and refused to leave. Their nightly movements through neighbourhoods and major institutions, such as NIT, Kashmir University, SKIMS, and Sadrabal, have created widespread evening fear, disrupted routine life, and triggered one of the Valley’s most extensive wildlife searches. Despite drones, cages and continuous tracking, officials say the agile juveniles remain a step ahead. The episode reflects deeper ecological shifts, with healthier forests, human disturbance, shrinking food availability and climatic variations pushing bears into settlements at a time they should be entering winter torpor. Jammu and Kashmir has recorded steadily rising human–wildlife conflict, with fatalities and injuries increasing over recent years. While no harm has yet occurred in Srinagar, residents stay indoors after dusk as wildlife teams work to guide the animals safely back to the forests.

In the last five years, Jammu and Kashmir has deleted 49,810 ration cards, including 33,677 in 2021, 2,927 in 2022, 5,403 in 2023, 4,767 in 2024, and 3,036 in 2025, as part of a nationwide beneficiary verification under PMGKAY.

MUMBAI

Real Kashmir Football Club, releasing on Sony LIV, is a sports drama set against the striking landscape of Kashmir and inspired by real events. The series follows the creation of Kashmir’s first professional football club, focusing on the struggles and victories of young local players as they confront competitive league pressures. Themes of unity and perseverance run through the narrative. Khusshal Maggo, who left Chartered Accountancy for acting, plays a key role and says the role has strengthened him as a performer. The show also brings actor and writer Manav Kaul back to his birthplace. Playing a Kashmiri Pandit businessman who helps build the club, Kaul sees echoes of his own life, especially his memories of leaving the Valley in the 1990s, captured in his travelogue Rooh. Director Mahesh Mathai says the team worked sensitively to balance Kashmir’s real socio-political context while keeping the story centred on the club’s remarkable journey.

Jammu and Kashmir recorded 227 UAPA arrests in 2019, 346 in 2020, 645 in 2021, 1,238 in 2022 and 1,206 in 2023, against convictions of 0, 2, 0, 11 and 10, respectively.

KERELA

Three women in their 40s, Shyni C V, Uma Mahesh and Nishi Khan, recently fulfilled a teenage dream by completing a 3400km Kanniyakumari-to-Kashmir motorcycle ride. Uma and Nishi had learnt to ride at 18 but were held back for years by social expectations and circumstances. Their passion was rekindled after meeting Shyni, an accomplished rider known for her cross-country trips and for training women in Thiruvananthapuram. The trio undertook the journey with the message Say No To Drugs, navigating floods, damaged roads and delays. After reaching Kashmir, each continued her own route, while Shyni carried on with yet another all-India ride.

Jammu and Kashmir generates 1,470.3 tonnes of municipal solid waste daily, but only 283.5 tonnes (less than 20 per cent) is scientifically treated.

JAMMU KASHMIR

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has sent a proposal to Lt Governor Manoj Sinha to rationalise the reservation system and raise the Open Merit quota from its current level of around 30 per cent. The move follows a 2024 sub-committee recommendation to restore Open Merit to 50 per cent after new ST and OBC inclusions sharply reduced it. Student groups urged the government not to cut EWS or Reserved Backward Area quotas, recommending instead that income, land and economic-progress criteria be updated to make the system more data-driven and equitable. Political parties and RBA groups have strongly opposed any reduction in their quotas. The proposal has reduced 7 per cent from the existing EWS and three per cent from the RBA to add 10 per cent to Open Merit.

Between December 1, 2020 and October 10, 2025, over 4.37 lakh women entrepreneurs in Jammu and Kashmir received Mudra loans worth Rs 7,579.3 crore under PMMY.

JAMMU

Shafat Ahmed Shangloo, arrested by the CBI and Jammu and Kashmir Police in connection with the 1989 kidnapping of Rubaiyya Sayeed, daughter of then Home Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, was released by a special TADA court a day after his arrest. The agency sought his judicial custody, claiming he was a conspirator alongside banned JKLF chief Yasin Malik, who remains imprisoned for terror funding. Shangloo’s lawyers argued that the CBI chargesheet did not name him as an accused, and the court found no evidence against him, noting he had been falsely implicated. Shangloo, a businessman, emphasised he had freely travelled and held a verified passport since 2016. He was arrested from his Srinagar residence despite carrying a Rs 10 lakh reward on his head. The 1989 case saw Rubaiyya abducted near Lal Ded Hospital and released after five days in exchange for five militants, with Malik and others later identified as participants.

Jammu and Kashmir Bank has transferred Rs 363 crore in unclaimed deposits to the RBI’s DEA Fund and, between April 2022 and November 15, 2025, settled 24,886 such accounts, returning Rs 55 crore to rightful claimants.

PULWAMA

The Jammu and Kashmir High Court has allowed PDP MLA Waheed-ur-Rehman Parra, facing trial under UAPA, to travel anywhere in India without prior trial court permission, modifying his 2022 bail condition. Parra, arrested by the NIA in November 2020 for allegedly supporting militants, was granted bail in January 2021 but re-arrested by the JK Police. His application argued that prior permission caused hardship, given his legislative duties. The division bench directed him to inform the trial court of his location and the purpose of his travel. The court noted the 2022 bail had questioned the reliability of the prosecution’s evidence.

Jammu and Kashmir added 218,308 new diabetic patients under treatment between 2023–24 and 2025–26, following screenings of over 8.64 million people.

DELHI

The Jammu and Kashmir government has designated the JK Board of School Education (JKBOSE) as the State School Standards Authority (SSSA), aligning with the National Education Policy 2020. Issued through an order on July 1, the decision aims to ensure transparent, independent and effective regulation of schools across the Union Territory. As SSSA, JKBOSE will now separate and supervise regulatory, academic, examination and administrative functions, setting standards and monitoring school compliance on safety, infrastructure, teacher qualifications, governance and financial rules. The move follows recommendations from PARAKH, the national assessment centre under NCERT, which has advised States to notify their examination boards as SSSAs to maintain the equivalence of standards nationwide. Other boards, such as CBSE, Himachal Pradesh and Mizoram, have already been designated. Stakeholders, however, asserted that instead of giving the responsibility to the BOSE, the government must create a separate body, as many other states have done, so that they will have their own berths to represent their issues.

Jammu and Kashmir recorded a total of 41,251 cancer cases between 2022 and 2024, with annual figures rising from 13,395 in 2022 to 13,744 in 2023 and 14,112 in 2024.

JAMMU

The Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court has held that cross-Line of Control (LoC) barter trade between Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir constitutes intra-state trade under the GST Act, since PoK is legally part of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir. The ruling came while hearing petitions from traders who conducted barter-based LoC trade between 2017 and 2019 and challenged GST show-cause notices issued for non-payment of tax. The division bench of Justices Sanjeev Kumar and Sanjay Parihar dismissed the petitions, noting that both the suppliers and the place of supply lay within Jammu and Kashmir, making the trade taxable as an intra-state supply. The court rejected claims that the barter system or the India-Pakistan SOP exempted the trade from GST, observing prima facie suppression of material facts and stressing traders’ duty to self-assess tax liability. While dismissing the pleas, the court allowed the petitioners four weeks to respond to the GST notices through statutory remedies.

BARAMULLA

The Enforcement Directorate has filed a prosecution complaint in a narcotics-linked money-laundering case involving a Baramulla-based husband and wife. Submitted before the Special PMLA Court in Jammu, the complaint alleges they generated over Rs 2 crore from smuggled drugs and routed the money into bank accounts. The ED has claimed a Bemina property worth Rs 1.5 crore was bought with illicit proceeds and has already been attached, with further investigation continuing.

SRINAGAR

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah urged the Centre to restore full law and order powers to the elected Government, arguing that Jammu and Kashmir did not witness incidents like the Pahalgam and Delhi terror attacks when it functioned as a full-fledged State. He said accountability cannot be expected while policing remains under central control. Stressing that elected governments must have authority over security, he said the Centre should return these powers and, if performance falters, it may reassume them. Restoration of statehood is the consistent demand of the ruling JKNC government.