Srinagar, Mar 30 : A four-day long children's film festival opened in Srinagar with the aim of helping children, particularly orphans, overcome their trauma.

The 'Shehjaar Children Theatre Festival 2009' is being jointly organised by the Help Foundation, a local NGO, and the Rajiv Gandhi Memorial Trust.

Nighat Shafi, an organiser of the festival, said that its main aim was to lessen the stress of the local kids and help them smile for a while.

According to official sources, around 60,000 devotees from all over India visited the holy shrine of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi to seek the blessings of the Divine Mother in her three manifestations during the first two days of the Chaitra Navratras that started on March 27.

M K Dwivedi, additional Chief Executive Officer of the shrine board, said that more than 6.5 million pilgrims visit the shrine every year, and the number of pilgrims is rising year-on-year.

New Delhi, Mar 26 : The Army on Thursday revealed that a top militant of the Pakistan based terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) was killed in the gun-battle with security forces in Jammu and Kashmir''s Kupwara district.

On receiving information about militant infiltration in the forest area, the Army, assisted by local police had acted promptly and launched a gunbattle on March 20, in which the self-styled district commander of LeT Abdullah was killed, a defence spokesman said.

The militants had sneaked into Kupwara as the dense forest range is close to the Line of Control (LoC).

Kathua (J-K), Mar 26 : Farmers who had lost their agricultural land to border fencing in Kashmir are happy with realignment of fencing border.

Farmers of Kathua district have thanked government for fencing re-alignment.

"Earlier, almost half of our land was wasted due to fencing near border areas... Now we are feeling happy after re-alignment of fencing... the Government has done a good job for us," said Maggar Singh, a farmer.

Now nearly 1100 acres of land is available for cultivation.

Srinagar, March 25 : The Indian Army on Wednesday said that the Pakistan-based terrorist group Laskar-e-Taiba (LeT) along with some other foreign outfits, were responsible for the gunbattle with security forces in Jammu and Kashmir''s Kupwara district.

Addressing the press here, Brigadier General Gurmeet Singh said that high-order arms and ammunitions recovered from the terrorists indicate Pakistani help.

He pointed out that the terrorists couldn''t have accessed the weaponry without state backing.

Srinagar, Mar 25: The five day long gunbattle between militants and security forces inside the Hafrada forest in Jammu and Kashmir''s Kupwara district finally ended on Tuesday evening.

The encounter, which is continuing since March 20, has claimed the lives of seventeen militants and eight security personnel.

On Tuesday, six more militants were killed.

Four soldiers and five militants were killed on Monday while an ultra died a day before. On Saturday, four troops, including Major Mohit Sharma, and two militants were killed.