Monthly Archives: August 2018

In the ongoing debate on reorienting the army, the time for implementing many ideas such as downsizing and changing the defensive mindset could be premature or due to a skewed understanding of the operational environment.

It is wrong to assume the army’s offensive spirit has been eroded by the LoC fence or cessation of strillery duels. PTI

It is absolutely correct that Pakistan has achieved a fair degree of its intent through sponsoring a proxy war on our soil and India has been unable to take the response to Pakistan’s soil. Yet the Indian Army alone is not the only instrument of response. Also decisions are not taken by the Army but advice is definitely given. It is for those who receive the advice to choose the instrument of coercion. The Army is the lead agency and remains fully prepared to do what it has to, in any part of the spectrum of war.The Indian Army has been drawn into a long counter insurgency (CI) campaign in J&K through an adroit Pakistan game plan conceived 30 years ago. This happened just as the world entered into a phase which has been characterized by Hybrid War, with Conventional War taking a backseat. With nuclear parity, India conventional asymmetry with Pakistan has received a setback. Since then, India focused more on economic growth and opportunities from the prolonged restructuring of the global economy. Its emphasis on war avoidance led to a strategy (or by default) of following strategic tolerance. By contrast, Pakistan’s compulsions of attempting to maintain a bogey of deterrence and risking sponsored proxy war, has prevented it from achieving its socio-economic goals. In the long run it is still advantage India although no one can discount the attraction of Pakistan’s geostrategic location which makes it a frontline state for western support.Indian generals may not be experienced in conventional operations but not many around the world are. Anyway, experience at sub tactical level in conventional operations does not qualify for competence at operational and strategic levels. The maxim, command experience in any theatre and form is good enough for assuming higher command responsibility continues to hold good.There have been an almost obsessive chain of arguments against the LoC Fence, branding it as the chief cause of a defensive mindset. The ceasefire from 2003 actually worked to our advantage. The then army chief Gen Nirmal Vij had the clarity of thinking to begin construction well before the Pakistani ceasefire offer. The ceasefire only facilitated the construction at alignments close to the LoC. Till its completion, the ‘mathematics of terror’ was always in favor of Pakistan’s Deep State. Thousands of terrorists were killed only to see a larger number infiltrate, almost at will. The CI grid could just not handle it; high attrition was not high enough. The operationalisation of the Fence led to redeployment of resources. By 2007 there was higher attrition, the drying up of leadership and curbs on across-the-border flow of IED material, ammunition and grenades. Incidentally the last major successful IED blast took place eight years ago.The ceasefire helped in focusing on counter infiltration without any loss of aggressiveness. It is a misnomer to think that the offensive spirit is promoted by daily trans-LoC artillery duels. Removing the Fence will increase infiltration and that will require more troops. The Fence in no way curbs initiative because the Army gives it no tactical significance except for countering infiltration, a realm which, if not exploited, would amount to tactical sacrilege.  It does not even metaphorically infuse a fortress mentality, let alone literal one, because enough troops are deployed ahead of it.As to the notion that the Indian Army’s 1.2 million troops are unable to deter Pakistan with half that combat power, it is never the numbers which dictate this. It is the capability and attitude of those who control the strings of decision making. Stating that 40 per cent of the army serves in CI operations in Northern Command gives credence to the Pakistani lie. If that had been so, the field to peace deployment ratio would be completely skewed; mercifully it has never come to that.The Army has competent leaders preparing for conventional war fighting. There are enough contingency plans for the Rashtriya Rifles and operationalisation of offensive options; the Army needs no advice on that. About India’s military professionals being incompetent because they donned the uniform after 1971, perhaps the opinion of some foreign institutions and armies should be taken. The Army is not in CI operations of its own volition. Get a competent replacement and it will withdraw. But, the Army’s hard won results cannot be frittered with experiments. The blood and flesh expended to regain the loss will again be that of the Army.  Lt Gen DS Hooda’s decision to selectively upgrade the LoC Fence will further strengthen the CI grid and enhance the chances of zero infiltration. With no ingress from PoK and the absence of a leadership, the kinetic part of the militancy would almost be over.Principally no one can argue against the need to right size. However, collusive threats from Pakistan and China have not waned. The decision to raise two new divisions was taken after assessing and anticipating threats as also the existing voids in the order of battle. A full scale Army level war game preceded the final decision. The raising of the Mountain Strike Corps was also triggered by the prevailing environment on the Sino India front. There are still enough arguments for and against it.Lastly, the 1.7 percent allocation to the Defence budget which is slated to further reduce is a measure of the capability that we wish to develop as a nation. Given better procedures for acquisition and manufacture of select hardware within India, armed with a better equipment profile and administrated by a more competent and empathetic bureaucracy the Indian Army is quite capable of looking after both, the CI front and the conventional one without impinging on capability for either.

IAF officers pay tributes to Lance Naik Om Parkash at the Chandigarh Air Force Station on Monday. A Tribune Photograph

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 22

The mortal remains of Lance Naik Om Parkash, who was killed while fighting with terrorists at Pampore on the outskirts of Srinagar yesterday, were airlifted to his native place near Shimla, today.The body was flown into Chandigarh in an IAF aircraft and then ferried by helicopter to Chail near Shimla in Himachal Pradesh. Floral tributes were paid to the fallen soldier at the Chandigarh Air Forces Station. Wreaths were laid on his coffin by Brig Hitesh Kohli from the Headquarters Western Command and Air Commodore A Saklani, Air Officer Commanding 12 Wing.Om Parkash and two other officers were killed during an attempt to neutralise terrorists who were holed up in a building. The sacrifices of Capt Pawan Kumar and Capt Tushar Mahajan, who were from the same unit and killed in the same operation, were also remembered with heavy hearts by those present. Capt Akash Pawar, Capt Sudhanshu Pani, Capt Harshit and Capt A. Baghel, the course mates of Capt Pawan Kumar who were on their way to Jind, shared their fond memories with tearful eyes. Capt Pawan belonged to Jind, where his last rites were held today with full military honours.

Fresh violence was reported on Monday in Rohtak and Sonipat in Haryana as Jat protesters continued to block roads in some parts of the state, including the arterial Delhi-Ambala highway, demanding a written assurance that the community will be given reservation in jobs and education.

Live updates:

2.30 am: PIL filed in SC seeking court to step into law and order breakdown pertaining to Jat agitation

2.20 am: Caste violence in a Hansi village. Curfew imposed.

1.45 am: Major tension in Panipat and Murthal where heavy police force and army have been deployed

1.30 am: Rohtak bypass at Delhi-Bahadurgarh border chowk blocked by protesters again.

1.00 am: Freight train set on fire by protesters in Ganaur, Sonepat.

12.30 am: Fresh violence in Meham sub-division of Rohtak district. Traffic has been disrupted and the official vehicle of the sub-divisional magistrate set on fire by a mob.

11.40 am: Haryana says 400 Cusescs water will be released to Delhi by 1 pm; to reach Delhi by 5 pm.

11.30 am: Supreme Court slams Delhi govt for not talking to Haryana to sort it out and move court in the matter.

11.20 am: Munak canal won’t be operational for a week.

11.15 am: There are road blockades at few places in Rohtak, the situation is likely to improve during the day.

11am: In Rohtak, the epicentre of pro-quota Jat agitation, curfew remained in force even as there was no report of any incident of violence and arson in the last 24 hours.

“There is no major incident in the last 24 hours in Rohtak and last night was peaceful,” a senior Rohtak Police official said.

Watch | How people of Haryana suffered during Jat quota agitation

Read | Khattar’s Haryana govt floundered in many respects

10.30 am: Curfew lifted in Hisar, Barwala and Hansi

10.30am: Blockades at several places in Sirsa and Fatehabad have also been lifted

10 am: No untoward incident, except for the blockades, was reported in the state in the past 12-hours, police said.

8.30 am: Security forces moved in to get blockades removed from the busy NH-1 (Delhi-Ambala) and NH-10 (Delhi-Hisar). Efforts were also made to clear railway tracks on the Delhi-Ambala and Delhi-Bathinda sections.

7.50 am: The army has taken control of the strategic Munak canal from Jat quota agitators, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Monday, raising hopes of an end to a crippling water crisis in large parts of the Capital.

With the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) promising to give reservation to Jats and assuring that a bill will be brought in the next session of the Haryana assembly, leaders of the community have appealed to the protesters to end the agitation.

The violence in the aftermath of the Jat agitation, which is into its ninth day on Monday, has left 11 people dead and over 150 injured.

Read | This will go very far, says a protester on Jat quota agitation

Thousands of people and vehicles were stranded on NH-1 as the protesters laid siege to the highway in Sonipat and Panipat districts in the past three days, cutting off road connectivity to Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Chandigarh through the highway.

Nearly 800 trains were also cancelled by railway authorities in the region due to the Jat agitation.

Hundreds of shops have been vandalised and set on fire in Rohtak, Bhiwani, Jhajjar and other places. A number of government and private buildings and vehicles were also set on fire in the past four days as mobs went on a rampage in over 10 districts in Haryana.

The state government had to requisition the army and para-military forces to contain the situation. However, the violent protests continued and spread to other areas of the state.

(With agency inputs)

Srinagar: Another officer of the Indian army’s elite Para Regiment was killed on Sunday evening in the ongoing gunfight between guerrillas and security forces in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama district while an injured soldier died in hospital, taking the toll to six, police said.

A senior police officer said Captain Tushar Mahajan was killed Sunday evening in the over 24-hour-long ongoing gunfight between holed-up guerrillas and security forces inside the Jammu and Kashmir Entrepreneurship Development Institute (JKEDI) complex in Pampore town on the Srinagar-Jammu national highway.

Mahajan belonged to Udhampur district.

Earlier, a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) spokesman said one of the militants was also killed and his body recovered, but then denied it, saying there had been some confusion.

Earlier on Sunday, Captain Pawan Kumar of 10 Para Regiment was killed when he entered the JKEDI multi-storeyed building in which the guerrillas are holed up.

Captain Pawan Kumar belonged to Haryana’s Jind and was the only son of his parents.

“Lance Naik Om Prakash of the Para Commandos, injured in the gunfight during the day, succumbed to critical injuries in the army’s base hospital in Srinagar,” said the police officer.

The toll in the gunfight among the security forces now comprises three soldiers, and two CRPF troopers. A civilian identified as Abdul Gani Mir of Gundipora village of Pulwama district, who worked as a gardener at the JKEDI complex, was also killed.

A total of 13 other security men have so far been injured in the gunfight that started on Saturday when guerrillas attacked a CRPF bus on the Srinagar-Jammu national highway at Sempora in the district.

After attacking the bus that was part of the CRPF convoy, the group of three to five heavily-armed guerrillas, said to be of the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), had entered the JKEDI complex where around 120 staff members were inside the complex.

All the civilians were safely evacuated before the operation was started by the security forces against the holed up guerrillas.

Security forces on Sunday pressed drones into service to pinpoint the exact location of the guerrillas inside the building whose top floor has already been destroyed in the fire caused by the use of explosives to flush out the militants.

A senior police officer said the security forces have entered the ground floor, while the guerrillas are in the upper floors.

Meanwhile, dozens of protesters resorted to heavy stone pelting at the security forces in Pampore town and some other places close to the gunfight site.

Two protesters sustained injuries in tear smoke shelling and aerial firing by security forces to disperse the protesters. The Srinagar-Jammu national highway remained closed for the second day Sunday due to the gunfight.

Gurdaspur, February 19

Senior Congress leader Parminder Gill, who had also played host to 16 MPs of the Home Ministry’s Parliamentary Standing Committee last week, has urged the state government to treat the families of the martyrs of the Pathankot attack on a par with Olympians.Addressing a press conference, Gill, who is a former chairman of the ‘kisan’ wing of the PPCC, said that the state government had not done enough for the families of Honorary Major Subedar Fateh Singh of Jhanda Gujran village and Kulwant Singh of Chak Sharif village, both of which fall in Gurdaspur district. Both were retired Army officers and were killed in the terrorist attack on the Air Force station.“I had informed the MPs of the standing committee that Rs 1 crore each should have been given to their kin. This is the same amount as is given to gold medal winners in the Olympics. Moreover, a job commensurate with the educational qualifications of the daughter of Fateh Singh should be given to her,” he said. Gill said he had urged the Defence Ministry to strengthen the present set-up of the District Sainik Welfare Boards. — TNS

Beijing’s reported deployment of surface-to-air missile bound to be introspected as launchers on an island in the South China Sea recently photographed by a commercial satellite is an act of grave provocation. It is clearly in violation of the spirit of a 2002 Asean-China joint declaration on the conduct of parties in the South China Sea which affirms the signatories’ commitment to international law. China’s unilateral action, clearly aimed at militarily asserting its claim in the maritime region, is going to aggravate tensions in the South China Sea, a key international shipping route through which $5 trillion worth trade passes each year.
Beijing is not going to be amused at the detection of the missiles on Woody Island. It could think of imposing an air defence identification zone (ADIZ) whereby China can question and intercept aircraft flying in that area. This could increase chances of conflict, especially with the US insisting on its right to continue to fly, sail and operate wherever international laws permits. Already aircraft from the Philippines overflying the Spratly Islands, another disputed archipelago in the South China Sea, have been the recipients of such stern warnings due to a Chinese ADIZ established in the area. The South China Sea is the scene of multiple and complex maritime disputes between several countries with China as the central player. Beijing claims 1.35 million square miles of water in the area, thus virtually regarding the entire South China Sea to be its own.
China is busy buildings roads, runways, jetties and other infrastructure on some of the disputed islands and all these activities invite suspicion of its expansionist intent. China also wants the world to respect it as a peaceful nation. It is imperative that it disengages militarily in the South China Sea and seeks to resolve its disputes peacefully through negotiations. Muscle flexing is not going to help build a benign image.

India’s recent demonstrative protest to the United States against the latter’s sale of eight more F-16 multi-role fighters to Pakistan is as unnecessary as it is excessive. Not only will the sale of these aircraft not alter India’s military balance with Pakistan, but it could also tantamount to India unwittingly hyphenating New Delhi with Islamabad, a cold war phenomenon that the Indian diplomat has worked hard to undo in recent years. While New Delhi may have valid reasons to question Washington’s rationale to supply these aircraft, yet the fact is Pakistan has been in possession of F-16s since 1983. Washington justifies the sale saying that these are ‘critical’ to Islamabad’s counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency operations which in turn are in the national interest of Pakistan, the US, Nato and the region as a whole as these operations will reduce the ability of militants to use Pakistani territory as a safe haven for terrorism and a base of support for insurgency in Afghanistan. New Delhi’s assertion is that these aircraft have limited value against fighting terrorists and is only expected to sharpen the Pakistani military prowess against India. Pakistani Air Force fighter aircraft have indeed been engaging militants in their hideouts in the tribal areas of Waziristan. However, it is difficult to quantify the success of these operations. There is also the criticism that Islamabad has been selective in targeting only the anti-Pakistani elements within the Taliban.But by expressing its disapproval, New Delhi can also be open to similar protests by Pakistan for its continued purchasing spree of high technology weapon systems and weapon platforms which has made it the world’s largest importer of defence equipment. India’s recent agreement to buy 36 Rafale multi-role fighter jets from France is one case in point not to mention the long list of other defence equipment that New Delhi has purchased from Russia, the US and Israel. Rather than protesting too much, India should engage in quiet diplomacy and continue to build on its strategic partnership with the US while feeling free to arm itself from any source as per our defence requirement.