Monthly Archives: August 2018

Army men in action near the LoC in J&K on Tuesday. Photo: ANI

Majid Jahangir & Ishfaq Tantary

Tribune News Service

Uri/Srinagar, September 20

Two days after the Uri terror attack in which 18 soldiers in the garrison town of Uri in Jammu and Kashmir were killed, the troops on Tuesday foiled two infiltration bids, one in Uri and the other in Nowgam, barely 20 km from each other, killing at least 10 suspected militants. A soldier was killed in the Nowgam encounter.A defence spokesman said the operation in Uri sector was underway. “A group of 10-12 terrorists, who attempted to infiltrate into Uri sector, were intercepted by the Army. The encounter is on,” the spokesman said. Sources said soldiers of 6 Bihar and 17 JAKLI Regiments were engaged in a fierce encounter with the militants at Mayan Katal Lachiora in North Kashmir’s Baramulla district. They also said Pakistan had violated the ceasefire by opening fire. “The firing from across the border was clearly aimed at providing cover to the infiltrating militants,” the sources said.”A soldier was martyred in Nowgam operation,” a defence official said.The Army had foiled two such attempts on September 11 and 16 in Poonch and Uri sectors. Four terrorists were killed in each of these operations.According to the Army, infiltration attempts from across the border have increased this year in comparison with the past three to four years. Pointing out that 19 infiltration bids had been repelled so far this year, the Army described it as a “desperate attempt” by Pakistan to create “disturbance and foment unrest” in the Kashmir Valley. The Valley has been on the boil ever since the killing of Hizbul commander Burhan Wani in an encounter on July 8.

Don’t harbour ultras: US to Pak

• New Delhi: US Secretary of State John Kerry has asked Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to prevent terrorists from using Pakistani territory as safe havens, as he expressed strong concern over the violence in Kashmir particularly the terror attack on the Army base in Uri. Kerry met Sharif on Monday on the sidelines of the 71st session of the UN General Assembly. TNS

Pakistan IB chief to skip SAARC meet in delhi

• New Delhi: Post the Uri terror attack, Pakistan has decided not to send its Director General of Intelligence Bureau (DGIB) Aftab Sultan to a two-day conference of top security experts of SAARC countries that starts here on Thursday. A senior official in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said Sultan would not attend the SAARC meeting and the country would be represented by an official of the Pakistan High Commission in India. According to a statement issued by the Home Ministry, the second meeting of the high-level group of eminent experts from SAARC countries will be held on September 22 and 23. The objective is to strengthen SAARC’s anti-terror mechanism, it said. The first such meeting was held in New Delhi in February 2012. TNS

Info on presence of battalions probably leaked out

Amir Karim Tantray

Tribune News Service

Jammu, September 18

The Army was taken by surprise when the militants attacked a strategic Army base at Uri in the wee hours today. The timing of the attack has raised eyebrows in the Army as how the information of presence of two battalions of the Army at the particular point was leaked out to militants which led to the attack of such a huge magnitude.Sources in the Army said at the rear administrative base two battalions were present and they were to hand over and take over charge of their duties. “There are chances that information must have been leaked to militants from within the Army installation or from the area close to the camp,” said a source.“Some people may have been observing the movement inside the camp by keeping a regular watch from outside,” the source added. He said it was not possible to carry out such an attack without having the knowledge of the Army unit and presence of soldiers inside the camp.Even the Northern Command of the Army said, “This is one of the deadliest terror attacks on an Army installation in the country. The attack occurred around 4.30 am when most of the soldiers were asleep.”“The militants had advantage as they approached towards the Army camp from a hilltop with a dense forest area. They seemed to have all information of the presence of soldiers inside the camp, which helped to go for maximum damage,” the source added. Though the encounter ended within hours and all four militants were eliminated, before that 17 soldiers died and around 23 got injured.This Army installation is sensitive for being close to the Line of Control (LoC) in the Uri sector of north Kashmir’s Baramulla district. In the past, infiltration had been taking place from this area, which has made it vulnerable for terror attacks.“Leaking any information of an Army installation to anti-national elements is an act of treason and it needs to be probed who provided the vital information to militants that led to killing of our soldiers,” the source added.

Who provided information to attackers

• There are chances that information must have been leaked to militants from within the Army installation or from the area close to the camp. Some people may have been observing the movement inside the camp by keeping a regular watch from outside. — A source

CHANDIGARH: Punjab Congress president Capt Amarinder Singh on Thursday joined the veterans’ march to governor VP Singh Badnore and submitted a memorandum supporting the stand taken by the three services chiefs against the bias towards defence services in the Seventh Pay Commission.

The veterans included Lt Gen SS Brar, Lt Gen Jasbir Singh Dhaliwal besides major generals, brigadiers, colonels, junior commissioned officers and soldiers. The memorandum addressed to the President Pranab Mukherjee, who is also the supreme commander of the armed forces, said, “The community of veterans across the country fully endorses the stand taken by the chiefs of the army, navy and air force with regard to the recommendations of the seventh central pay commission.”

“However, the Indian armed forces trusted their civilian brothers and opted to be subject of a common pay commission. But the trust so posed was shattered by gumption of bureaucrats who insinuated two formulae for working out the pay scale of armed forces vis-à-vis civilian employees, placing the former to disadvantageous positions,” the memorandum said.

The ex-servicemen said that in the officer’s pay scale recommended by the fourth pay commission, at the time of its implementation, the government foisted provisions that fudged and diluted the pay scale to such an extent that the rank pay supposed to be paid over and above the recommended scale, was in fact included in the integrated pay scale, virtually depriving officers of their rank pay.

“Are soldiers less patriotic than bureaucrats or are they second rate citizens in their own country? This deserves serious consideration,”

Tribune News Service

Jammu, September 12

Lt General JS Sandhu will be the new General Officer Commanding (GOC) of Srinagar-based Army’s 15 Corps. He will replace Lt Gen Satish Kumar Dua.In another move, Lt Gen AK Sharma has been appointed as the next GOC of Nagrota-based 16 Corps. He will replace Lt Gen RR Nimbhorkar who proceeds as Master General Ordnance (MGO) at Army Headquarters.According to the posting orders issued by Army Headquarters, Lt Gen Sandhu, who is an officer of the 5th Gorkha Rifles, will take over as the new GOC, 15 Corps. The 5th Gorkha Rifles is the regiment of the Chief of Army Staff General Dalbir Singh. Lt Gen Sandhu has served as the Military Attache in Nepal besides he had also coordinated the relief and rescue operations in Nepal in 2015.The appointment of Lt Gen Sandhu has come at a crucial juncture because the Kashmir valley has been facing widespread violence and unrest since the killing of militant commander Burhan Wani in an encounter on July 8. It is expected that the Army will play an important role to restore normalcy in the Kashmir valley.He has been given an extended joining time of 30 days and would report to Srinagar to take over the command of the 15 Corps on October 25. His predecessor, Lt Gen Dua will have to wait for some time to get his new posting.

NEW DELHI: Sharing the concern of a Delhi-based lawyer protesting against government funds to Jammu and Kashmir-based separatists, the Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear a petition wanting to declare such a move unconstitutional. “We also share the same feeling,” a bench headed by Justice AR Dave told the counsel. The court said the matter could be heard on September 14 if all the technical formalities are fulfilled.

The petition is filed at a time when the separatists reportedly turned down the all-party delegation’s offer to hold talks to resolve the crisis in the Valley.

As per the petition, the separatists “enjoyed” the exchequer’s money and promoted “antiIndia activities” in the Valley. It seeks a CBI inquiry into the alleged disbursement of funds to the separatists.

Chennai, September 1

A remotely operated vehicle of NIOT that can scan sea at a depth of 3,500 metres, will join the search for IAF’s AN-32 aircraft which went missing with 29 crew members on July 22, a Coast Guard official said today.The search operations would move into the third phase next week and the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) had been requested to bring its remotely operated vehicle that can be taken to a depth of 3,500 metres, Coast Guard Commander (East) Inspector General Rajan Bargotra said here.So far two phases — surface search and sub-surface — have been undertaken, but no debris of the transport aircraft that went missing on its way to Port Blair from Tambaram airbase here has been found, he told reporters here on the sidelines of Regional Editors Conference, organised by the Press Information Bureau.“As of now we are into second phase of search operations. Surface search, we have already done that for quite sometime. No debris has been located. Now the focus is on sub-surface search,” he said. — PT

Solution lies in Shahpur Kandi dam, but project hangs in balance due to objections by J&K govt

A file photo of the Shahpur Kandi project. Tribune photo

Sarbjit Dhaliwal

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 28

Even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi has favoured maximising the internal use of three rivers, the Indus, Jhelum and the Chenab, that are part of the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty with Pakistan, the Punjab Government’s Irrigation Department engineers have showed their concern over the flow of the Ravi waters to Pakistan downstream Madhopur Headworks in Pathankot district.They want that the work on the Shahpur Kandi dam project be resumed to stop the flow of water to Pakistan, besides bringing more area under irrigation in Jammu region and enhancing the irrigation capacity in Punjab.The Ravi water was to be pooled at the proposed balancing reservoir by raising the dam with an estimated cost of Rs 800 crore at Shahpur Kandi, about 11 km downstream the Ranjit Sagar dam.Half of this reservoir was to be made in Punjab territory and the other part in Jammu and Kashmir. The land for the project was acquired years ago and the Centre was to fund 90 per cent of the project. However, following objections by the J&K Government, the work was suspended two years ago.Consequently, whenever excess water is released from the Ranjit Sagar dam in the Ravi, especially during summer months, a good amount of water flows to Pakistan via Madhopur Headworks in the absence of a balancing reservoir at Shahpur Kandi. Dr GS Dhillon, former chief engineer, Irrigation Department, said: “The balancing reservoir should have been completed even before the Ranjit Sagar dam.”In summer, when the demand for power goes up, all hydro-power units installed at the Ranjit Sagar dam are made operational. To operate turbines about 15,000 cusecs of water has to be released. Of this, 12,000 cusecs is released into the Upper Bari Doab Canal and Madhopur-Beas Link Canals at Madhopur Headworks and the remaining flows to Pakistan.During the monsoon, sometimes floodgates of the Ranjit Sagar dam have to be opened due to topping up of the reservoir. Again, the water goes to the neighbouring country.The J&K Government has taken the plea that since the Punjab Government has terminated the River Waters Sharing Agreement in 2004, the previous agreement relating to the Ranjit Sagar dam and Shahpur Kandi dam between Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir too have become defunct.The Punjab Government has taken up this issue with the Centre asking it intervene, but the J&K Government has refused to budge from its stand.Kahan Singh Pannu, Irrigation Secretary, Punjab, said the state government had been trying hard to convince the J&K Government over the matter, but to no avail. He said if the project was completed, it would bring additional 65,000 hectares of land under irrigation in Jammu region, besides stopping the flow of Ravi waters to Pakistan.

About the project

• The Ravi water was to be pooled at the proposed balancing reservoir by raising the dam at Shahpur Kandi
• Half of this reservoir was to be made in Punjab and the other part in J&K
• The land was acquired years ago. However, following objections by the J&K Govt, the work was suspended two years ago

‘Make tunnel to divert Chenab water’

• Pritam Singh Kumedan, a consultant to the Irrigation Department, has written to the Prime Minister, Union Government’s Secretary, Irrigation, and the Indus Waters Commissioner, urging them to divert the Chenab water into the Ravi through Marhu tunnel. The work on the tunnel was taken up immediately after the Partition, but it was stopped after Pakistan raised hue and cry over the project. Kumedan said the Chandra and Bhaga rivers originate in Lahul and Spiti region and meet at Tandi to merge with the Chenab. In 1948, Punjab had prepared a project to divert 20,000 cusecs of water of the Chenab to the Ravi by building a tunnel at Marhu, 5 km downstream Tandi. Kumedan said the Indus and Jhelum could not be diverted as it was technically not feasible, but the Centre could revive the tunnel project at Marhu.

No abrogation, but India to test Indus treaty waters
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, September 26
India today took the bold decision to fully utilise the potential of the three western rivers as per the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), in an attempt to increase the pressure on Pakistan after the Uri attack.
India’s decision stops short of “abrogation” of the treaty and aims at playing within the legal limits. The decision is set to rattle Pakistan and the world, too.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a meeting today to review the IWT. According to sources, Modi said, “Blood and water can’t flow at the same time.”
The meeting was attended by Principal Secretary to PM Nripendra Misra, National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar, the Water Resources Secretary and other senior officials. The treaty was reviewed and it was decided that India would exploit to the fullest capacity the three Pak-controlled rivers — Indus, Chenab and Jhelum — as per the Indus Waters Treaty. In addition, a decision has also been taken to review the construction on the Tulbul navigation project, which has been suspended since 2007.
Sources said it was felt at the meeting that the IWT wasn’t fair to the people of Jammu and Kashmir, but its fuller implementation would benefit them. Sources add the government’s plan was to exploit an option that hadn’t been exercised in the past 30 years — to use the western rivers to benefit farmers of Jammu and Kashmir.
Jammu and Kashmir Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh last week said the state government would support whatever decision the Centre took on the IWT.
The historic treaty signed in 1960 has stood the test of time so far, despite the wars fought between the two nations.

Apex court’s no to PIL

• New Delhi: An SC Bench on Monday rejected a plea for an urgent hearing on declaring as null and void the Indus Waters Treaty signed by India and Pakistan in 1960. Petitioner ML Sharma said the treaty was invalid as it should have been signed by the President instead of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. There was no hurry in hearing the plea as the treaty was 56 years old, the CJI said. tns

The Army Brigade Headquarters in Uri. Tribune Photo: Amin War

Arun Joshi

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, September 24

Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has concluded that last Sunday’s terror attack on the Army base in north Kashmir’s Uri sector in which 18 soldiers lost their lives and many more injured could be a “reaction” to the situation in Kashmir, an unmistakable reference to the ongoing disturbances in the Valley.This statement is a self-indictment of Pakistan. In all senses of the word, “reaction” clearly states that the militants “hurt” by the Kashmir situation in which more than 80 lives have been lost had mounted the attacks. Hence, he believes that Pakistan is blameless, and “India, without waiting even for the conclusion of the attack had blamed Pakistan without any evidence.”First of all, the question is why Nawaz Sharif did not assert this position in his speech at the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday, when he drew an angry imagery of the “Indian brutalities on Kashmiris peacefully protesting for their right to self-determination”. If the “intifada in Kashmir” and the attack are cause and effect, then why did Pakistani premier hide this revelation from the world body. India would have been on the back foot and the listeners would not have ignored his ill-informed bluster.It could have been a “reaction,” but Nawaz Sharif did not tell that where from the militants originated, but by going by the conventional wisdom, he meant that they were locals and Pakistan had no hand in it. This could be a possibility, but the facts speak otherwise. The reality is that militants, who hurled grenades and showered bullets on the soldiers at the crack of dawn in the hilly Uri area, and their commanders and organisations are headquartered in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.Even if the attackers were locals, again the question is who had declared Burhan Wani, a militant commander killed in July 8 encounter, as “martyr” and had observed “black day” on July 20, and who hailed him as a “young leader” of the Valley – the answer is Pakistan. The Islamabad-Rawalpindi were keen to turn the death of Burhan to their advantage and cause disturbances and violent protests in Kashmir at the time when the people were preoccupied with their normal activities, tourists were landing in hordes and the children were in schools.How could India raise accusing fingers towards Pakistan when the operation was still in progress, Pakistan Prime Minister has asked this question which may sound very valid and in need of convincing answer. There is a template of fidayeen attacks, which are mounted by the Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad, both headquartered in Pakistan. If they were locals, there are so many Army camps in Kashmir, which could have been targeted. There was no need for the local militants to travel all the way to remote Uri, a border area lying adjacent to the Line of Control where, otherwise, there is no presence of militants. The template of such attacks in Poonch, Mohra, Pampore, Pathankot had all the fingerprints of Pakistan. So, why Pakistan should get edgy about it? It must learn to own its people but then there is a history that it was Nawaz Sharif’s government that had refused to take back Pakistani soldiers’ bodies during the Kargil conflict. Denial is the best weapon with Pakistan, but it doesn’t work all the time.