Monthly Archives: August 2018

Sample store first of its kind has been opened in the complex of Golden Loin Canteen complex at Ambala cantt by Maj Gen Vinod Kumar GOC PH &HP(I)  area Ambala on 12 Apr 2016.

After getting successful  response from the ESM and public , Sanjha Morcha is going ahead with similar stores to be opened in Various Cantonments for resettlement of ESM at early stage with full support of Sanjha Morcha team head by

Col Sandeep Bhanot,President  Harayana unit of Sanjha Morcha.

ESM can open it alone if financially sound or 4-8 ESM can club together for joint venture.

The employs will be ESM themselves or their Children, widows or their children , At no cost any civilian will be employed in the store. All items of the store will be replenished by Sanjha Morcha team centrally and the  selling rates will be less than MRP. No canteen brand supply item will be sold from the store but can have different brands/manufacturers.

All technical,workers,stores, will be provided by Sanjha Morcha

—Tribune file photo

Srinagar, April 19

One person was arrested in connection with an alleged molestation case of a girl in Handwara, an incident that triggered a cycle of violence for past one week in North Kashmir.

Hilal Ahmed Bandey, one of the two accused identified, was arrested from Handwara by the Jammu and Kashmir Police last night, official sources said, adding he is being questioned.

Bandey was among the two persons named by the girl in her statement before Chief Judicial Magistrate. He is accused of manhandling the girl on April 12 while she was stepping out of a public restroom in Handwara town.

The girl had also denied the allegation by local people that an armyman had tried to molest her.

In her statement before the Judicial Magistrate, “she said that on April 12 after school hours, while proceeding to her home with her friend, she entered in a public lavatory near main chowk in Handwara for answering the call of nature. As soon as she came out of lavatory she was confronted, assaulted and dragged by two boys and her bag was snatched.”

“One of the boys was in school uniform. The production of the girl along with her father before the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Handwara was to comply with the order of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court,” police had said.

The sources said that a manhunt had been launched to arrest the other accused named by the girl in her statement to unravel the entire conspiracy. Initial investigation indicates that the girl was spurning offers for a relationship from one of the two boys.

However, the entire case will be solved once the second accused is also arrested, the sources said.

Immediately, after the locals dragged the girl from the public restroom, angry mob started pelting stones and ransacked the Army bunker in Handwara town.

Incidentally, the locals had been demanding withdrawal of the bunker for quite sometime, but the Army had put its foot down, saying it was strategically important for the troops.

Now the state government is likely to hand over the bunker to civil administration for development.

Meanwhile, curfew-like restrictions continued in Handwara and its adjoining areas.

Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has appealed to the people to help restore peace and promised severe punishment to those involved in the violence in Handwara and Kupwara that left five people dead. —PTI

—Tribune file photo

Jammu, April 19

Pakistani troops on Tuesday resorted to ceasefire violation along the International Border (IB) in Samba district of Jammu and Kashmir.

The truce violation came hours before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Katra.

Pakistani troops fired four-five rounds on a forward post in Samba sector early this morning, a senior BSF officer said.

BSF troops, guarding the borderline, retaliated, he said, adding there was no loss of life or injury to anyone.

BSF troops also picked up suspicious movement near a forward area in Samba sector and resorted to firing thereby forcing the person to flee, he said.

The Prime Minister has arrived at Mata Vaishno Devi University complex where he is scheduled to inaugurate a super speciality hospital, a sports stadium and take part in the convocation after which he is going to address a public meeting today. —PTI

Our Correspondent

Poonch, April 16

An 11-year-old schoolgirl died after a rashly driven Army vehicle allegedly hit a motorcycle near DAV Public School in the Kanoyian area of Poonch district this morning.The deceased has been identified as Payal Devi, a resident of Mangnar village in Poonch.Sources said the Poonch police received information about the accident around 9 am today. The police rushed to the spot and found the girl lying in a pool of blood, they added.At the time of the accident, the girl was going to school with her uncle on a motorcycle.A police officer said the girl died instantly, adding that the police have started investigation into the matter.The driver of the Army vehicle, however, managed to flee.Meanwhile, the police said a hunt was on to nab the erring driver.

Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 14

The Ministry of Defence has for now deferred a decision on having a permanent chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee (COSC) to coordinate all issues between the three Services and the ministry.At present, the senior-most among the three Chiefs — of the Army, IAF and Navy — also holds the post of COSC Chairman in addition to his regular duties. He notionally coordinates the issues on behalf of the three Services.Sources have confirmed that various aspects of having an additional officer at that level are still under study. “It will take another six months to examine his role, status and duties,” a source said. Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar is studying various aspects related to the creation of the new post.The Naresh Chandra task force, set up by the UPA government in 2011, on higher defence reforms had in its report in 2012 suggested a four-star officer as a permanent chairman of the COSC, who will be equal in rank of the three Chiefs.Sources said the government was planning a permanent chairman for COSC having two-year tenure with equal rank and protocol as the Chiefs of the three Services. The chiefs, because of their retirement age of 62 instead of 60 years, have a tenure that is usually longer than two years.One thinking in the government is that the COSC should be headed by the “first among equals within the Chiefs”. This would entail appointment of the senior-most General as the permanent chairman of the COSC in the armed forces bound by hierarchy.He will be the boss of the Integrated Defence Staff (IDS), which is presently headed by a Lt General-rank officer in rotation among the three Services.The government’s thinking is that a permanent COSC Chairman, backed by a strong administrative structure, will have ample time to focus on tri-Services’ issues and would be better placed to coordinate between the Army, Navy and Air Force.The officer will be responsible for all military acquisition processes, Strategic Forces Command, cyber command and on promoting “jointmanship” within the forces.A single-point military adviser’s post in the form of Chief of Defence Staff was proposed by K Subrahmanyam-led Kargil Review Committee set up by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government after the Kargil war.

Need for fourth top officer

• The Naresh Chandra task force on higher defence reforms had in 2012 suggested a four-star officer as a permanent chairman of Chiefs of Staff Committee (COSC)
• The senior-most Service Chief currently doubles as Chairman of COSC. He coordinates matters on behalf of the Army, IAF and Navy
• It is felt that a permanent chairman, backed by a strong administrative structure, will allow better coordination between the three Services.

A new the wave of violence has swept northwest Kashmir coinciding with the Chief Minister’s first-ever visit to New Delhi. The violence was triggered by an alleged molestation of a young girl   by a soldier in Handwara town on Tuesday.  She has denied this in a video that itself has invited criticism and charged a group of youths with creating the whole trouble. There obviously is something more than what meets the eye. The Army suspects a conspiracy orchestrated by the separatist-inclined forces  to “malign its image.” The two inquiries, ordered by the Army and the state government, will serve  their purpose only if  allowed to reach their conclusions in  a transparent manner  by applying the principle of accountability. The past experience doesn’t offer much ground for optimism.  This is a testing time for the new Chief Minister to ensure that not only the inquiries are conducted in a fair manner but also appear to be impartial and result-oriented. It is time for her to prove that she is different and that she means business.Mehbooba has a double-task at hand. Her effort should be to seek punishment for those who killed the protesters and also  go deeper into the malaise that has resulted in the current turmoil. There is an attempt by separatists and some other quarters to push her in a  confrontational mode with Delhi, hoping instability in which they do thrive. It is a toxic idea. It would create more trouble and sour the Srinagar-Delhi relationship.  She cannot afford to get trapped in that strategy; not because of the political arithmetic of the PDP and the BJP but primarily because that would produce no gains. She must take control of things  as the Chairman of the Unified Headquarters, the highest policy-making body of the security  affairs in Jammu and Kashmir, and ensure that command-and-control works. Equally important is the  task  of administering the much-needed “healing touch” to the people in the real sense of the phrase. Her test lies in making right decisions. If she insists on wanting to please all, she would please none.

Our Correspondent

Rajouri, April 12

People of Rajouri today paid homage to martyrs of 1947, killed fighting Pakistan intruders who had laid siege to the city from November 1947 to April 1948.The Pathans and Pakistan army and had captured many areas of Poonch and Rajouri districts.More than 20,000 people of the minority community, including women and children, had sacrificed their lives between November 1947 and April 13, 1948, while fighting the marauders to save their motherland.Residents of old Rajouri city every year organise a function at Balidan Bhavan to pay homage to the martyrs.“The survivors came out of their hiding places only when the Indian Army entered the town on April 13, 1948,” said Krishan Lal, an eyewitness of the 1947 massacre.Rajouri was 28 miles from the 19 Noushera Brigade Headquarters and the road was badly damaged. The enemy had planted mines under culverts to stop the movement of the Army.To chalk out a strategy for launching offensives, Lt Col Zorawar flew over the area along with a senior Engineering Officer who, according to Army records, had said: “Anyone who is thinking of advancing with tanks to Rajouri is in my opinion taking a great risk.”On April 13, 1948, at 10.30 am, the Indian Army had entered Rajouri town and liberated it from the clutches of Pakistanis.

Pakistan JIT visits a spot near the Pathankot IAF base. PTI file photo

Islamabad/New Delhi, April 6

Pakistan tonight said India had not produced witnesses belonging to the security forces before its Joint Investigation Team (JIT) on the Pathankot terror attack.In its first statement after the JIT returned Pakistan following its visit to Pathankot and New Delhi, the Pakistan Foreign Ministry made no reference to media reports that claimed the attack was “stage-managed” by India.“The JIT visited the crime scene and also recorded the statements of some witnesses. However, the witnesses belonging to the Indian security forces were not produced before it,” said a statement.Meanwhile, NIA has approached probe agencies of some foreign countries, including the US’ FBI, in connection with its probe into the terror attack. Sources say their help is being sought to track cyber footprints left by JeM handlers. — PTI

Gorakhpur, April 5

With Beijing scuttling India’s latest bid to have JeM chief Masood Azhar designated as a terrorist by the UN, Union Minister VK Singh has warned that the day is not far when China would have to pay a heavy price once it gets hit by Pakistan-backed terrorism.“The friendship between China and Pakistan appears to be very strong but the day is not far when China too gets affected by Pakistan-backed terrorism,” Singh, who is here to take part in a function at the Gorakhnath temple, told reporters last night.“When such a situation arises, China will have to pay a heavy price,” the Minister of State for External Affairs said, adding, “Pakistan has an important place in Chinese diplomacy…China’s intervention in that case must be seen in this context.” — PTI

Masood Azhar, who indoctrinated a million militants, was freed by India in 1999. This is a reflection of the inertia in the system and a misreading of the national security situation. It also reveals the lack of a firm policy against terrorism and perpetrators of terrorism.

Maulana Masood Azhar. PTI

Before he founded the terror outfit, Jaish-e-Mohammad, Maulana Masood Azhar was a prisoner in the Kot Bhalwal jail in Jammu. On the night of December 30, 1999, mandarins from New Delhi, including the former RAW Chief  A.S. Dulat,  flew to Jammu to persuade the then Jammu and Kashmir chief minister  Farooq Abdullah to order Masood Azhar’s release.The soul of pan-Islamic militancy in South Asia, the urgency to secure his release was because Harkat-ul-Mujahadeen men, in connivance with  Lashkar-e-Toiba, an  off-shoot of  the Al-Qaida, had hijacked the Indian Airlines airbus IC 814  on its way from Kathmandu to Delhi. There was pressure on the NDA government, led by Atal Behari Vajpayee, to free Masood Azhar and two others, Mushtaq Zargar of Kashmir, and Ahmad Omar Sayeed Sheikh of Pakistan. Omar later killed Wall Street Journal’s South Asia Bureau Chief Daniel Pearl in Karachi.Twice  before Masood Azhar’s  men had attempted to   secure his release. In 1994,  it was done  by a group called Harkat-ul-Ansar. Two  Britishers, including the son of a British journalist based in Delhi, were kidnapped from the woods of Pahalgam. And, in July 1995, an hitherto  unknown group Al-Faran had kidnapped six foreigners from Aaroo on the upper reaches  Pahalgam  in South Kashmir. The demand in both the cases was for the release of Azhar Masood. The Indian Airlines plane was hijacked in December 1999 to achieve the same objective. On the night of December 30, Farooq Abdullah had refused to release Azhar but yielded after pressure from Delhi, especially from the then Union Home Minister  L K Advani and Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh.Incidentally, Masood Azhar’s arrest in 1994 was accidental. He was caught  while travelling in an autorickshaw in Anantnag. Why was Azhar so important for the  militant groups and the ISI  that had sent him to Jammu and Kashmir on a fake Portuguese passport?   Radha Vinod Raju, a brilliant investigator and founder of the NIA, the then Inspector General of Police, Jammu, explained,  “Azhar is a strategic asset for Pakistan’s ISI. They can afford to get any number of militants killed, but they need someone who can motivate the young to pick up guns to kill or die. They are cannon fodder. He is an ideologue. That’s the difference.” Before ordering the release of Azhar,  the  chief minister who had taken a similar stand against the release of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front  men  to secure the release of  then Union Home Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s youngest daughter  Rubaiya Sayeed, had warned of big trouble once Azhar was released. Delhi  did not heed the advice. The impression was that Farooq Abdullah was not interested in saving  the lives of crew and passengers of the hijacked aircraft parked in Kandahar, the capital of Taliban  in Afghanistan .Azhar had founded Jaish-e-Mohammad when he reached  Pakistan soon after his release. He was the mastermind of many terror attacks, including the one on the Indian Parliament on December 13, 2001. After the attack on the Pathankot Air Force base,  there is a  sudden urgency in  getting the custody  of the Jaish-e-Mohammad chief. This is necessitated by the national security and foreign policy imperatives. The Indian establishment is haunted by the fear that the idea of Masood Azhar could spell more disasters. A terror group that could reach a high-value asset like the Air Force base, is capable of doing anything. Now China too has come to the aid of Pakistan.  China has blocked the Indian  request to declare Azhar as a terrorist so that UN sanctions can be  imposed on him. But the Chinese  Permanent Representative at the U N  Liu Jieyi  said that Azhar did not qualify as a terrorist. Though in reel-life, getting Masood Azhar like Hafiz Sayeed  could be the storyline of a Bollywood thriller, in reality untold damage  has been done. It is a classic case of the  flip-flop policy of the government. At the time of Masood’s  release, India secured the release of  165 crew members and  passengers of the hijacked plane. There is no count of the many more who have been killed in the attacks sponsored by Jaish-e-Mohammad since the release. He was on trial in a Jammu court, but he could not be convicted. Instead, men who escorted him  to  the court, believed that he had spiritual powers and asked him for a taweez (amulet)  to guard against evil spirits and help to solve their domestic and professional  problems. Such was the aura of Masood Azhar among his jail mates  and others .Without going into details about how the Indian system succumbed to the hysterical images of the relatives and friends of the captive passengers flashed by TV channels, the fact is that  even if the terror mastermind is handed over to India — which in any case would never happen — there is no guarantee that the Indian leadership and bureaucratic system will not repeat the mistake as they had done on December 31, 1999.  On the eve of the millennium In India, there were celebrations over the release of a man who had motivated militants. Can there be a more tragic  story  than this?

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