Army Chief General Dalbir Singh Suhag inspects a guard of honour in Beijing on Monday. PTI

• Army Chief General Dalbir Singh Suhag on Tuesday held talks with China’s Central Military Commission Vice-Chairman General Xu Qiliang and head of China’s ground forces Gen Li Zuocheng and wrapped up his visit to Beijing and left for field visits
• At Nanjing, he is scheduled to interact with General Liu Yuejun, Commander of the Eastern Theatre Command of the People’s Liberation Army and visit military installations, including an infantry division and air defence brigades. He will also visit Xian before returning home on November 24
• During General Suhag’s meeting with Xu, both Generals “reiterated their desire to keep up the momentum of defence exchanges and the need to keep the borders tranquil and peaceful”, an Indian Embassy statement said

12 Jat, raised as the forerunner of Rashtriya Rifles units, has had a varied combat experience of 46 years

Please write in with your narratives of war and soldiering to msbajwa@gmail.com or call/WhatsApp on 093161-35343

Soldiers though trained to be hard, have a softer and creative side too. Of them, paratroopers are reputed to be tough with a keen eye for detail and ground. Akash Deep Gill is all of these with the added quality of having a flair for design where the famed paratrooper’s vision undoubtedly helps. Commissioned in 1978, he served with 2 and 3 Para and formed part of the Army .22 pistol shooting team, becoming the national champion in 1991-92. Later he did a stint with the ‘hush-hush’ Special Frontier Force’s 3rd Battalion. With no command vacancies in the Paras, he took over 15 Maratha Light Infantry, serving in Pune and the LOC from where he took premature retirement, settling in Chandigarh.

KESHAV SINGH/HTColonel Akash Deep Gill (retd) pictured with some of the artefacts designed by him. His creative bent of mind showcases the sensitive side of the otherwise harsh world of soldiering.

The running of a premier leader goods store in Sector 7 occupied his time. Gill’s leisure time was spent travelling and indulging in his hobby of collecting antiques. This led to what became his passion – the design and creation of artefacts. The modification and enhancement of period pieces of furniture occupies a fair bit of his time as does the design and fabrication of new furniture and objets d’art. His house in Sector 28 is filled with his creations. The future might see him turning professional with his designing and creation. 12 JAT REUNION

12 Jat was raised as a part of the 31-32 series of specialised battalions for counter-insurgency (the precursor of today’s Rashtriya Rifles units) with a mix of personnel from the parent regiment and the Punjab, Rajput and Sikh Regiments. Deployed to Mizoram, the battalion soon found itself in the forefront of operations against East Pakistan in 1971. The Jats carried out surgical strikes against Pakistani forces in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. Most notable was young Lieutenant Baljit Gill’s raid in September on a group of boats carrying men of 3 Commando Battalion, SSG on the Karnaphuli River, 35 kms deep in enemy territory. He was awarded a Vir Chakra for the successful operation. Forming part of Kilo Force, the Jats spearheaded the advance on Chittagong, taking the surrender of a large number of naval personnel.

During the Sri Lanka operations, the battalion served in the jungles of Vavuniya, winning a number of decorations. 12 Jat again distinguished itself in Siachen during the Kargil War. It has a number of tenures in counter-insurgency and in the no-war, no-peace environment of the LOC.

Recently, the first-ever reunion of the battalion’s officers was held at Chandimandir with veterans coming from as far away as Guwahati. This indeed is the spirit that spurs men to perform impossible deeds for the good names of their regiments. 12 Jat Zindabad! LIKELY NEXT AIR CHIEF

Air Marshal Birender ‘Tony’ Dhanoa is likely to be the next Air Chief on account of his seniority and undoubted merit. Currently he is the vice-chief after having commanded South-Western Air Command. He commanded 17 Squadron (The Golden Arrows) in action during the Kargil War, flying reconnaissance and strike missions and winning the Yudh Seva Medal. Belonging to Gharuan village near Kharar, he was educated at the Rashtriya Indian Military College, Dehradun. The Air Marshal’s father was in the IAS and volunteered to serve in Punjab as the chief secretary in the difficult time after Operation Bluestar. One looks forward to the good news.

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Rajmeet Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 10

Within hours of the Supreme Court announcing its verdict on the controversial SYL issue, 42 Congress MLAs resigned from the Punjab Assembly today while state party chief Capt Amarinder Singh quit his Lok Sabha seat.Congress MLAs, led by Leader of the Opposition Charanjit Singh Channi, will submit their resignations to the Vidhan Sabha Speaker tomorrow and so will Independent MLA from Mukerian Rajesh Babbi.However, Lok Sabha MPs Ravneet Singh Bittu and Chaudhary Santokh Singh and Rajya Sabha members Ambika Soni, Shamsher Singh Dullo and Partap Singh Bajwa have not quit.  “I have resigned as MP (from Amritsar) as I am the PPCC chief. It is not necessary for other party MPs to follow suit. My resignation is a protest against the deprivation of the people of Punjab of the much-needed Sutlej waters. The apex court’s decision is a bad day in the history of Punjab,” he told mediapersons here. He challenged AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal to spell out his stand in light of the ruling. “The Congress will now go to the masses to expose the SAD-BJP government for failure to contest the state’s case effectively,” he said, recalling that it was following an agreement between the late Haryana Chief Minister Devi Lal and Parkash Singh Badal in 1978 that the stone for the SYL canal was laid. Alleging that the “Akalis have let down the people on the critical issue”, he claimed while his government tried to protect Punjab’s interests through the Punjab Termination of Agreements Act 2004, the Akalis “have exposed the people to unprecedented hardship owing to their failure to safeguard their interests in the court”.He cited evidence while accusing Badal of “selling” Punjab’s interests. “He was instrumental in acquiring land for the SYL canal in Punjab through a notification on February 20, 1978, and taking money from Haryana, weakening Punjab’s stand on the dispute,” he said.

Haryana khaps put Punjab on two-day notice

Chandigarh, November 10

Haryana leaders today welcomed the Supreme Court decision even as Punjab and Haryana seemed to be headed for a confrontation.Haryana’s khaps served a two-day ‘notice’ on Punjab to start implementing the court decision failing which they would cut off Punjab from Delhi.An upbeat Chief Minister ML Khattar congratulated the people of the state, saying the decision paved the way for bringing Haryana’s legitimate share of 3.50 MAF from the Ravi-Beas waters  through the SYL canal. Even as he alleged that the previous governments failed to get a Constitutional Bench constituted for a hearing on the Reference for 11 years, the Congress asked Khattar to urge the NDA government at the Centre to  ‘presssure’ the SAD-BJP Government  to honour the decision.

Congress workers hold a protest at Fountain Chowk in Patiala on Friday. Photo: Rajesh Sachar

Patiala, November 4

As the political war over the suicide committee by former Army man Subedar Ram Kishan Grewal spread beyond the National Capital, district leaders of the Indian National Congress today held a protest in the home constituency of Capt Amarinder Singh. They trained guns at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his alleged failure to protect the interests of Army men, farmers and the downtrodden of society.District presidents of the Congress Committee (Rural) Hardial Kamboj and (Urban) Prem Kishan Puri led the protest that was held at the Fountain Chowk where Congressmen even burnt an effigy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.They were also joined by Patiala II legislator Brahm Mohindra, who, while speaking on the occasion, said during its two-and-a-half-year rule, the BJP had proved to be an anti-people’s party that was working only for the gains of the capitalist.Hardial Kamboj, who is also the party legislator from Rajpura, said with Army men, farmers and Dalits committing suicides, it had now become apparent that the Union Government had failed on all fronts.During the protest, a large number of Congressmen raised anti-government slogans. — TNS

Effigy burnt

• District presidents of the Congress Committee (Rural) Hardial Kamboj and (Urban) Prem Kishan Puri led the protest that was held at Fountain Chowk where Congressmen even burnt an effigy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Says Grewal became sarpanch on a Congress ticket. Tribune file

New Delhi, November 3A day after he raised questions about the “mental state” of Ram Kishan Grewal, an army veteran whose suicide, allegedly over OROP, has sparked a political row, Union Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh on Thursday said the deceased soldier was a Congress worker.He also rejected reports about Grewal being a prominent face of the ‘One Rank-One Pension’ agitation, saying ex-servicemen protesting at Jantar Mantar for its implementation had on Wednesday said that they had seen the former armyman at the protest venue for the first time before he committed suicide.

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“He (Grewal) was a Congress worker. He became sarpanch on a Congress ticket. However, he was our soldier. I feel sad over his death,” the minister said.The minister had landed himself in a controversy on Wednesday when he said that the “mental state” of Grewal needed to be probed before drawing conclusions about his extreme action.“He has committed suicide. No one knows the reason behind it. OROP is being shown as the reason. What his mental state was we do not know. Let it be probed first. OROP should be kept above politics,” Singh told reporters, while reacting to the incident, which led to high-voltage protests in the national capital on Wednesday.He went on to state that the Centre had accepted the long-pending demands of the agitating veterans and there was no need to get into what one was saying for “4 paise”. PTI

Islamabad/New Delhi, Nov 1

India today protested against Pakistan over the unprovoked firing from across the border to give cover to infiltrators when its Deputy High Commissioner was summoned for the fourth time in just over a week over alleged “unprovoked ceasefire violations”.“Director General (South Asia & SAARC) Mohammad Faisal summoned Indian Deputy High Commissioner JP Singh today and condemned the unprovoked ceasefire violations on October 31 by the Indian Forces on the LoC in Nikial and Jandrot sectors,” the Foreign Office said in

a statement.

The statement said the firing killed six Pakistani civilians, including a woman, and wounded eight others.Singh protested against the unprovoked firing from Pakistani Rangers, saying it was primarily to give cover to infiltrators, Indian officials said in New Delhi. He also mentioned the killing of civilians on the Indian side during ceasefire violations by the Pakistan, they said.“The Director General urged the Indian side to respect the 2003 Ceasefire Understanding; investigate the continued incidents of truce violations; instruct the Indian forces to respect the ceasefire in letter and spirit, stop targeting the villages and civilians and maintain peace on the Working Boundary and the LoC,” the statement said.This was the fifth time in just over a week that Indian diplomats were summoned to the Foreign Office. The Foreign Office had summoned Deputy High Commissioner Singh on October 25, 26 and 28.On October 27, Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry summoned Indian High Commissioner Gautam Bambawale to the Foreign Ministry and conveyed the decision of the Government of Pakistan to declare an Indian High Commission official as “persona non grata”. — PTI

India lodges protest

• Indian Deputy High Commissioner to Pakistan JP Singh who was summoned on Tuesday protested against the unprovoked firing from Pakistani Rangers, saying it was primarily to give cover to infiltrators
• This was the fifth time in just over a week that Indian diplomats were summoned to the Foreign Office

Sources said it was most likely a mechanical failure.

Ajay Banerjee
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, November 29
Three Indian Army officers were killed when an Army Aviation helicopter crashed near Siliguri on Wednesday.
The two pilots–both in the rank of major- and a lieutenant colonel-rank officer were killed when the Cheetah helicopter just dropped to ground suddenly when it was coming to land at the headquarters of the 33 Corps at Sukhna, 11 km from Siliguri in northern part of West Bengal.

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Sources said it was most likely a mechanical failure.
Another accompanying copter which was carrying the Chief of Staff of 33 Corps landed safely.
The two copters were returning from a mission in Sikkim.

3 Army officers die in copter crash

Haryana’s Major Lathar, Jammu’s Major Bazala among dead

Tribune News Service

Kolkata, November 30

Three Army officers, including two belonging to Haryana and Jammu, were killed when their helicopter crashed at Sukna in Darjeeling district of West Bengal.Those killed were Major Sanjeev Lathar of Bhiwani, Haryana, Major Arvind Bazala of RS Pura, Jammu, the pilot and the co-pilot, respectively, and Lt Col Rajneesh Kumar of Farrukhabad district, Uttar Pradesh. The crash took place near the helipad of the Army’s 33 Corp’s headquarter at Sukna.Sapper Dhamne Yogesh Bhaskar, the fourth passenger, was seriously injured in the mishap. The Cheetah helicopter was built by the Bangalore-headquartered Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) under licence from the French manufacturer.”The helicopter crashed while landing at Sukna Military Station around 11.30 am. The helicopter was coming in to land from a routine sortie. Three officers were fatally injured and one jawan was critically wounded in the accident. They were taken to Bengdubi Military Hospital,” a press release issued by the Army said.The three officers were declared brought dead, while the fourth was being treated in the hospital for serious injuries.A Court of Inquiry has been ordered by the Army authorities to ascertain the cause of the incident.“Saddened at the death of 3 Army officers in Sukna due to tragic chopper crash. Words are never enough. My condolences to bereaved families,” West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Twitter.

Security men near the Army unit that came under attack. PTI

Dinesh Manhotra

Tribune News Service

Nagrota (JAMMU), November 29

Stunned by the pre-dawn terror strike at the highly fortified Army formation, shopkeepers of Nagrota and adjoining areas downed their shutters throughout the day as a mark of respect to the soldiers who attained martyrdom in the attack.Although a large number of locals were seen standing on both sides of the three-kilometre stretch from Kol Kandoli temple to Nagrota bazaar on the old Jammu-Srinagar highway, an eerie silence prevailed in the entire belt. The locals were disturbed when they received information about the death of seven Army personnel, including two officers, in the suicide attack, which took place at 5.25 am.“We woke up to deafening sounds of guns. Initially, we thought the Army was conducting a firing practice as is normally done in the area. However, when the firing intensified, we got scared,” said Anil Sharma, a school lecturer. “After some time, we got the information about the terror attack on the Army formation at Kour Jagir near a bridge on the Balone Nullah,” he said.Around 6 am, a group of over 50 youths gathered at the main chowk of Nagrota to express solidarity with the soldiers. They were seen clearing the road for the movement of Army vehicles.As initial reports suggested that two soldiers were injured, people opened their business establishments. However, as soon as the reports came that the toll had risen, shopkeepers downed their shutters as a mark of respect for them.