New Delhi, The conflict waging along the unsettled border between the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan can lead to higher rungs of escalation between the two nuclear weapon-armed states, says Harcharanjit Singh Panag, who retired as a lieutenant general of the Indian Army in 2008.

Referring to the Ceasefire Line (CFL), based on the Karachi Agreement of 1949, which was converted into the Line of Control (LOC) following the Shimla Agreement in 1972, Panag says that barring short spells, "the line has always been on fire".

Ranchi, Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das on Friday announced Rs 10 lakh compensation and job to a kin of Vijay Soreng who was one of the 45 CRPF personnel killed in the suicide attack in Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday.

"Chief Minister Raghubar Das has expressed grief over death of the CRPF personnel in Kashmir. The Chief Minister has also announced a compansation of Rs 10 lakh and job to one kin of the killed CRPF personnel Vijay Soreng," an official statement said.

New Delhi, Union Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday said that the government has decided to withdraw the "Most Favoured Nation" status given to Pakistan, in the wake of the worst-ever terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir a day ago when a CRPF convoy in Pulwama was rammed into by an explosive-packed SUV that has left 45 troopers dead.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the suicide attack on Thursday that proved to be the most devatating since militancy erupted in 1989.

New Delhi, BJP veterans, including L.K. Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi, are likely to contest the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, notwithstanding an informal bar on those above 75 years occupying ministerial and organisational posts.

A final decision in this regard would be taken by the party's Central Election Committee when it meets after the announcement of the election schedule, likely in the first week of March. Sources in BJP said the party leadership had given an informal green signal to these veterans.

They said the leadership wanted to persuade Advani (91) to vacate the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha seat for her daughter Pratibha but he is said to have turned down the proposal. Advani's stance was that having fought against dynasty politics throughout his career, he cannot compromise on it. Instead, he is keen on contesting the coming polls.

Srinagar, At least 20 CRPF troopers were killed and some 25 others injured on Thursday when a van packed with explosives reportedly rammed into a CRPF bus on the Srinagar-Jammu highway in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district, officials said.

In what is being described as one of the biggest loss to the security forces in one single incident, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) bus was ambushed in Lethpora town, about 30 km from Srinagar.

The incident took place when some 2,547 CRPF personnel were coming in a convoy of 78 vehicles from the transit camp in Jammu and headed to Srinagar.

New Delhi,Notwithstanding talk of a post-poll alliance, the Congress is all set to tie-up with the Left against the ruling Trinamool Congress for the Lok Sabha elections in West Bengal where it won 4 seats with a vote share of nearly 10 per cent in 2014.

Battling a surge of defections to the Trinamool and fund crunch, the state leadership, as opposed to the central leaders' wishes for a truck with the Trinamool, insists on a tie-up with the Left with whom it had an electoral arrangement during the 2016 Assembly polls.

Kurukshetra Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday laid the foundation stones of various projects in the health and education sectors in Haryana.

The Prime Minister laid the foundation stones of the National Institute of Ayurveda, Panchkula, Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya University of Health Sciences, Karnal, Shri Krishna Ayush University, Kurukshetra, and 'Battles of Panipat' Museum, Panipat.

New Delhi, "Go and sit in the corner," Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi told former acting CBI Director M. Nageswara Rao, after holding him guilty of contempt of the Supreme Court on Tuesday.

A bench headed by the Chief Justice was in no mood to listen to Rao's explanations on the issue of transferring out Additional Director A.K. Sharma, who was probing the Bihar shelter home horror, without the court's permission.

Rao and CBI's in-charge of prosecution S. Bhasuran were held guilty of contempt of court for disobeying its order to not transfer out Sharma. They were also fined Rs 1 lakh each.

New Delhi, Former Delhi chief minister and Congress city chief Sheila Dikshit on Tuesday met the kin of the victims of the devastating fire in a city hotel that claimed 17 lives, and demanded the setting up of a committee to probe its causes.

After meeting the family members of the dead at the Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) hospital Dikshit said, "The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Delhi should form a committee to find out how did a huge fire break out in such a big hotel?"

New Delhi, The Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF) and the International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF) were involved in the November 2018 grenade attack at a weekly congregation of the Nirankari sect in Punjab's Amritsar district, Parliament was told on Tuesday

Minister of State for Home Affairs Hansraj Gangaram Ahir told the Lok Sabha, in a written reply, that the Punjab Police has arrested two persons in the case so far and filed a case against three other persons residing abroad.