Monthly Archives: August 2018

NEW DELHI: India will step up efforts to get the UN sanctions committee to blacklist Pakistanbased Jaish-e-Mohammed militant group chief Masood Azhar as a terrorist, despite China blocking the move last week.

Beijing blocked the Indian application to put Azhar, the lynchpin of the Pathankot airbase attack in January, in the UN sanctions list.

But New Delhi remained optimistic that the Chinese pressure could wilt under growing support from UN member countries to blacklist the rabidly anti-India militant group’s chief.

Foreign ministry officials said the US, UK and France have for the first time come together as co-sponsors to back India’s move.

Separately, the government decided to hold a meeting next week to decide on whether to put China back in the list of ‘country of concern’, which could mean either total denial of security clearance to Chinese firms or stricter norms for setting up a shop here.

“A meeting of representatives from all stakeholders – ministries of home, external affairs, finance and commerce – is being called to decide on the issue,” said a senior government official requesting anonymity as he is not authorised to speak to media on the issue. The move is seen in line with the Indian retaliation to Beijing’s UN moves.

uspended Gurdaspur SP questioned in the presence of NIA officials

NEW DELHI: In a major boost to the Indian team probing the Pathankot case, Pakistan has admitted the involvement of its people in the terror attack.

PTI FILE PHOTOThe Pakistani joint investigation team’s written request to the National Investigation Agency for sharing the evidence was made under Section 188 of the Pakistani CrPC.The Pakistani joint investigation team (JIT)’s written request to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) for sharing of the evidence in the case was made under Section 188 of the Pakistani CrPC, which applies to Pakistani nationals who commit crime outside the country.

DEFENCE MINISTER MANOHAR PARRIKAR HAD SAID DEMARCATING THE LAC COULD GO A LONG WAY IN REDUCING TENSION ALONG BORDER

BEIJING: China on Tuesday emphasised the importance of dialogue to resolve the longstanding border dispute with India but gave enough indications that it is not up for mapping or demarcating the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

Beijing’s statement came a day before the two sides resume talks on the border issue in the Chinese capital after a gap of a year.

Visiting defence minister Manohar Parrikar raised the issue of demarcating the Line of Actual Control (LAC) during meetings in Beijing on Monday, saying it could go a long way in reducing tension along the border.

Disgust with the politics of Hindutva could combine with pan-Islamism to make this the worst summer in Kashmir, writes DAVID DEVADAS

So sharp and enraged were the public agitations in Handwara and Kupwara last week that a lot of people in Kashmir have been talking of a ‘return of 2010.’ Thankfully, things have settled down there, but the signs are worrying. Top police officers have spoken to senior army officers of the possibility that this will be the worst year yet for the forces. Comparisons with 2010 are natural. That was the year when mobs of Kashmiri youth took to the streets with stones and rage. Around 120 young men were killed that summer as the police and the Central Reserve Police Force repeatedly opened fire on belligerent crowds of youth. In early September that year, the Union cabinet was given a very alarming report about the situation. Indeed, so bad was the situation that the then chief minister, Omar Abdullah is said to have indicated to a cabinet committee in New Delhi that he did not want to return to Kashmir.

PTIThe sense that Kashmiris have been wronged by ‘outsiders’ has been boosted by recent events at the National Institute of Technology in Srinagar, at Handwara and Kupwara, and by perceptions that the media coverage of both have been biasedAlready, the portents this year are so worrying that comparisons with 2010 may turn out to be underestimates. Some people in Kashmir have talked excitedly of IndoPakistan and Sino-India tensions. They did not in 2010. Locally too, greater rage and frustration could be manifest than in 2010. A lot of Kashmiris have expressed amazement over the levels of the rage apparent in Kupwara district, which was considered safely dormant for India in the past.

In 2010 too, rage was partly animated by disappointment with the Omar Abdullah-led government, which was formed after the elections that were held in the winter of 2008. In 2016, there is not just disappointment but disgust with the established political process. This disgust and rage focuses on the BJP, which many Kashmiris not only disparage but deeply fear as the face of Hindu Right-wing animosity against Muslims in general and Kashmiris in particular. The PDP-BJP coalition is seen as a betrayal of poll promises; during the 2014 campaign PDP leaders had urged people to vote for the party in order to keep the BJP from coming from power.

Apart from the PDP-BJP tie-up, two other factors make the situation this year more dangerous than 2010. One of these is an increased sense of Islamic identity. This is partly a response to the RSS’s Hindudva ideology. This identity has also been strengthened by global currents emanating from the Gulf and elsewhere. There is greater acceptance of the idea that Muslims are under global siege by dominant powers, including a Christian West, Israel and a Hindu India. The third factor plugs into the second; insider-outsider antipathy has increased greatly since 2010. The sense that Kashmiris have been wronged by ‘outsiders’ has been boosted by recent events at the National Institute of Technology in Srinagar, at Handwara and Kupwara, and by perceptions that the media coverage of both have been biased.