TRAL
Hundreds of Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus in Tral’s Midora village joined the last rites of 90-year-old Kashmiri Pandit woman Jigri, who had continued living in the area through the militancy years after 1990. Residents described her as a maternal figure whose family lived in harmony with the community for decades. Her husband, a traditional hakeem, was remembered for treating villagers, as locals gathered across communities to mourn her death and participate in the cremation rites.
More than 17,000 animal bite victims, including over 9,100 cat exposure cases and 7,300 dog bite cases, sought treatment at the Anti-Rabies Clinic of SMHS Hospital between April 2025 and March 2026.
BUDGAM
A woman was killed allegedly while resisting the abduction of her 15-year-old daughter in the Khansahib area of Budgam, with police arresting the accused and rescuing the minor. Police said the case initially appeared to be a road accident after information was received about a woman being run over by a vehicle at Chek Sheera. Subsequent investigation later revealed that the woman was allegedly killed during an attempted kidnapping of her daughter. A special investigation team analysed CCTV footage and technical evidence before tracing and arresting the accused from Parimpora (Srinagar). The minor girl was recovered safely. Motive behind the alleged kidnapping and killing are still unknown.
Indian Railways has approved Rs 238 crore worth of slope stabilisation, tunnel rehabilitation and bridge protection works on the Jammu–Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra section.
KATHUA
The High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh has granted anticipatory bail to an Army personnel accused in a sexual exploitation and POCSO case after the woman complainant informed the court that she had filed the FIR under pressure from relatives and police officials and had since married the accused. The Kathua woman had initially alleged that the accused sexually exploited her for three years, threatened her and circulated obscene material. However, during investigation, she approached senior police authorities and later the Magistrate, stating that the allegations were un true. She told the court she had been in a relationship with him for years, had now attained majority and married him.
Jammu and Kashmir State Election Commission has published the final 2026 panchayat electoral rolls with the electorate crossing 72.24 lakh after addition of over 3.39 lakh new voters.
PULWAMA
Hamza Burhan, a militant allegedly linked to the 2019 Pulwama attack and associated with the Pakistan-backed outfit Al-Badr, was reportedly shot dead by unidentified gunmen in Muzaffarabad, media reported. Burhan, identified as Arjumand Gulzar Dar of Pulwama’s Ratnipora area, had been designated a terrorist by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs in 2022 under the UAPA. Reports said he sustained multiple bullet injuries in the attack. Security agencies had earlier alleged that Burhan crossed into Pakistan in 2017, ostensibly for higher studies, before joining Al-Badr. He was accused of involvement in recruitment, radicalisation and online propaganda activities linked to militancy in Kashmir. Officials had also alleged that he played a supporting role in the militant ecosystem surrounding the Pulwama attack, which killed 40 CRPF personnel in February 2019.
In the Northern Railway Rozgar Mela nearly 220 selected youth from Jammu and Kashmir will get job letters.
AMRITSAR
Normalcy returned to the campus of Khalsa College of Engineering and Technology in Amritsar after tensions triggered by a violent clash between Kashmiri and Bihari students last week. The altercation reportedly began in the hostel mess over a language-related dispute and later escalated into a physical confrontation, leaving several students injured. Police and district officials visited the campus and appealed against “false narratives” circulating on social media. Videos linked to the incident had fuelled allegations of regional bias and discrimination from both sides. College officials said all students involved in the violence had been expelled from the hostel for six months, though they would be allowed to sit examinations.
ACHAN
The Jammu and Kashmir government has approved a Rs 361-crore Integrated Solid Waste Management project at Achan landfill in Srinagar, aiming to achieve full scientific waste processing by March 2027 after years of environmental degradation and pressure from the National Green Tribunal. Spread over nearly 984 kanals, the Achan site had become a major civic and ecological crisis, with untreated leachate reportedly flowing into nearby Anchar Lake and residents complaining of severe foul smell and health issues. NGT inspections exposed defunct waste-processing systems, failed sewage treatment infrastructure and large-scale administrative lapses within the Srinagar Municipal Corporation. The tribunal imposed environmental compensation on the civic body and initiated proceedings against former commissioners. The new project includes biomining of nearly 11.5 lakh metric tonnes of legacy waste and establishment of an 800-tonnes-per-day waste processing facility, marking a major intervention in Srinagar’s long-running waste management crisis.
KULGAM
The funeral of former Jamaat-e-Islami chief Sheikh Ghulam Hassan, who died on May 16, at his residence in Tarigam , has exposed deepening divisions between the banned outfit and its breakaway political faction, the Justice and Development Front (JDF). During the funeral, mourners raised veiled pro-Jamaat slogans and speakers criticised unnamed individuals for embracing “socialism and secularism”, remarks widely seen as targeting the JDF, which contested the 2024 Assembly elections by fielding 10 Independent candidates. Kulgam Police denied reports of FIRs against mourners, saying only preventive measures were taken after slogans were raised during the funeral procession.
LADAKH
Representatives of the Leh Apex Body (LAB) and Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA) will hold fresh subcommittee-level talks with the Ministry of Home Affairs in Delhi on May 22 over Ladakh’s long-pending demands for statehood, Sixth Schedule safeguards, separate public service commissions and job protections. The meeting, chaired by senior MHA officials, comes more than three months after the last High-Powered Committee talks held on February 4. Sources said the Centre may soon announce the Ladakh Subordinate Administrative Services (LSAS) amid reports of nearly 1,200 gazetted vacancies in the Union Territory.
KUPWARA
More than 2000 families of Bijnor managing the hairstyle of Kashmir for many decades now was in news after a family alleged their 17 year old son was ““taken” to Jammu and Kashmir on the pretext of employment and later converted to Islam. Police registered a case each in UP and Srinagar and the boy was “rescued”. The teenager, identified as Vishal, was working in Kupwara. Police said the boy had worked at salons in Bandipora, Baramulla and Kupwara. The case gained attention after videos allegedly showing the teenager reciting prayers and adopting the name Hamza surfaced on social media. Vishal’s father filed a complaint on May 18, alleging forcible conversion. An FIR has been registered under provisions related to unlawful religious conversion, while Jammu and Kashmir Police have also initiated a separate investigation.
SRINAGAR
Qul Fruits and Italy-based Consorzio Italiano Vivaisti have launched IVAR, India’s first institutional platform for protected fruit varieties and genetics management, aimed at strengthening scientific horticulture, breeder protection and access to advanced global fruit genetics in Kashmir and the Himalayan region.
LANGATE
Engineer Rashid has hinted at quitting electoral politics while addressing mourners during the funeral of his father, Khazir Mohammad Sheikh, saying his struggle was “beyond Article 370 and statehood” and centred on the dignity of Jammu and Kashmir’s people. Rashid, recently granted interim bail from Tihar Jail to attend the funeral, said he was “most likely” not to contest future elections, though a final decision would come later. The jailed MP said politics should remain a battle of ideas and asserted that imprisonment could not break his resolve. He also called for reconciliation, criticised detentions of Kashmiri youth under PSA, and urged India and Pakistan to end violence. Rashid’s father, 85-year-old Khazir Mohammad Sheikh, a retired teacher, died at AIIMS New Delhi after a prolonged illness. The Delhi High Court granted Rashid interim bail till June 2 to attend the last rites.
PANZATH
In a striking blend of conservation and celebration, hundreds of villagers from over 45 communities gathered at the centuries-old Panzath Nag spring in south Kashmir’s Qazigund area for the annual “fish festival”, a unique tradition aimed at cleaning and reviving the vital water source. Armed with wicker baskets and mosquito nets, villagers waded through the 1.5-km-long spring removing silt, weeds and waste while catching fish using traditional methods permitted only once a year. The spring, believed to date back nearly 400 years and linked to around 500 smaller springs, supplies drinking water and irrigation to dozens of villages. Locals said the exercise immediately improves water flow and restores the spring’s clarity. The festival, which coincides with the traditional Rohan Posh observance, has increasingly emerged as a community-led environmental conservation effort amid growing concerns over pollution, shrinking water bodies and climate change in Kashmir.
KASHMIR
A Pakistani Lashkar-e-Taiba operative allegedly sent to Kashmir to execute terror attacks instead found himself chasing an unlikely personal mission, a hair transplant in Srinagar. Mohammed Usman Jatt alias Chinese, a Lahore resident arrested last month alongside LeT commander Abu Hureira, told interrogators that life in Kashmir was starkly different from the picture painted in terror camps across the border. According to investigators, Jatt suffered from severe hair loss and became interested in hair restoration after meeting a Srinagar shopkeeper linked to an Over Ground Worker network who had undergone the procedure himself. Police said the militant repeatedly visited the contact before secretly undergoing treatment at a city clinic, sometimes staying overnight there. The case, now being probed by the NIA, also exposed a wider LeT support network operating in Kashmir. Investigators said Jatt later travelled to Punjab, watched Turkish shows, learnt English and planned to secure forged Indian identity documents to flee abroad.
