SRINAGAR (ONS) – Diwali, the festival of lights, was celebrated with traditional gaiety and fervour across the state, with temples coming alive with hymns and devotional music.
Pandit and Sikh communities illuminated homes, neighbourhoods and places of worship with oil lamps, and exchanged gifts and greetings, while children had fun with crackers and fireworks.
Muslim neighbours visited to wish their Pandit brethren, partaking of sweets and joy while recalling old times.
Indian and Pakistani troops shared sweetmeats across the Line of Control and the international border in gestures contrasting their newly-revived gunfire on each others positions.
Forces personnel deployed in Kashmir had decorated camps and pickets with lights and flowers, and had a busy run-up to the festival buying crackers, bursting them with glee in the evening.
In some of the main religious functions in the city, the gaily-decorated Ganpatyar Temple in Old Srinagar and the Hanuman Mandir in Amira Kadal hosted a large number of devotees for special prayers.