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The Army official said two weapons were seized and operations were still on in the area. PTI file

Srinagar, June 21

Two Hizbul Mujahideen militants were on Wednesday killed in an encounter with security forces in Sopore township of north Kashmir’s Baramulla district, the police said.

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The militants have been identified as Basit Ahmad Mir, a resident of Indergam Pattan, and Gulzar Ahmad, a resident of Brat Sopore.

Following intelligence inputs about the presence of militants, security forces had launched a cordon and search operation in the area last night.

The search operation was halted for the night but the forces maintained the cordon to stop the militants from escaping, a police official said.

He said the operation resumed this morning and the gunfight started after the trapped militants opened fire on the forces.

Two AK rifles, five AK magazines, 124 AK rounds, a hand grenade and a pouch have been found at the encounter site, the official said. PTI

– See more at: http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/jammu-kashmir/2-hizb-militants-killed-in-encounter-with-security-forces-in-baramulla/425512.html#sthash.Aicw2Ypv.dpuf

Ahmednagar (Maharashtra), June 18

A four-member family of an ex-soldier was found brutally murdered in Shevgaon village of Ahmednagar in Maharashtra on Sunday morning, police said.

According to a police official, the victims were found in a pool of blood around dawn by neighbours.

The victims were identified as: Appasaheb Govind Harvane, 58, his wife Sunanda, 48, their daughter Snehal, 18, and son Makarand, 15. The motive behind the killings is not known.

They had been repeatedly stabbed by a sharp weapon. The incident reportedly occurred around midnight, the official said. — IANS

Pakistan shares borders with four nations, of whom, three have unequivocally accused Pakistan of direct sponsorship of terrorism and becoming, the ‘haven for terrorists’. Pakistan has restive borders of 3323 km with India in the East, 2430 km with Afghanistan in the North and 909 km with Iran in the West – each of whom has accused Islamabad of harbouring and encouraging elements that are inimical to the interest of these three countries. India’s grudge against the Pakistani complicity in terror has been historical and consistent for many years. But the more recent stand-off and a diatribe by President Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan, chorusing the common frustration against Pakistan, has now been mirrored in blunt terms by Major General Mohammad Hossein Bagheri, the chairman of the Iran’s Armed Forces General Staff (AFGS). “We expect Pakistani officials to control the borders, arrest the terrorists and shut down their bases,” Bagheri said. “If the terrorist attacks continue, we will hit their safe havens and cells, wherever they are.” This is a unveiled threat, eerily reminiscent of the ‘surgical strikes’ that were forced upon Pakistan by its continuing insincerity, duplicitousness and patronisation of ‘terror nurseries’ (an expression that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had used while inaugurating the new Afghan Parliament building in Kabul in 2015).

Ironically, the now-irate political leadership in all three neighbouring nations had started on a clean slate, around the same time. In May 2014, Prime Minister Modi’s decision to invite his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif for his swearing-in ceremony was hailed as the ‘right decision at the right time’ to soothe the frayed nerves on the Line of Control. Later in September 2014, the incoming President of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani attempted a complete U-turn in the established ground rules by trying to bury the hatchet and change the tenor of open hostility and accusations that defined the Af-Pak relationship during the 13-year tenure of the outgoing Afghan President, Hamid Karzai. Earlier still in 2013, Tehran had seen a change of guard from the hawkish hardline stand of Ahmadinejad to the more moderate, liberal (read, less sectarian) and pragmatic Hassan Rouhani. Pakistan had reciprocated then by refusing to send troops to Yemen as part of the ‘Sunni Coalition’, funded by Iran’s traditional nemesis, Saudi Arabia.

Since then, the initially thawing narrative vis-à-vis Pakistan has regressed into the familiar cold freeze with all three i.e. India, Afghanistan and now Iran, accusing Pakistan of the same thing – i.e. aiding, abetting and harboring terror groups that are ‘neighbour facing’ (e.g. Lashkar-e-Taiba for India, Taliban for Afghanistan and Jaish al-Adl for Iran), inaction on known operatives and facilitating the border ‘shoot-and-scoot’ wherewithal for these terror groups. India faces the daily risk of terrorists slipping across the LoC with Pakistani ‘cover fire’. Meanwhile, the imperious concept of ‘strategic depth’ for Pakistan in Afghanistan irks the Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to lament, “One of the key figures in the Taliban movement recently said if they didn’t have a sanctuary in Pakistan, they wouldn’t last a month”.

The Iranians are also facing similar Balochi and Ahwazi insurgencies that have its benefactors in the Pakistani establishment. The Iranian Military chief Maj Gen Mohammad Hossein Bagheri was earlier the Deputy of Iran’s intelligence and operations, which makes him familiar with the asymmetric and devious track-record of the Pakistani machinations. Expectations from the Iranian Military Chief sworn in last year was alluded to in the decree from Ayatollah Khamenei. “You are expected to oversee an upgrade to [Iran’s] military and security capabilities and the readiness of its armed forces and the popular Basij, and to improve their ability to respond in a timely fashion to any threat against the Islamic Republic at any level, using revolutionary determination,” the Ayatollah wrote. It was an implied nudge to Bagheri, a veteran of extraterritorial operations and the supposed theoretician of the Iranian ‘threat for threat’ tactic, manifested in the unprecedented outburst aimed at the Pakistanis, recently. The incident that triggered the Iranian Chief’s ire was the cross-border terror attack by the Sunni militant group Jaish al-Adl (‘Army of Justice’), which left 10 Iranian soldiers dead in its wake. Iran accuses Pakistan of supporting this terror group – who had earlier claimed responsibility for terror attacks in 2015 that killed eight Iranian Border Guards and fourteen in 2013. The Iranian police investigating the latest incident stated that the terrorists had used long-range weaponry and that, “Pakistan bears the ultimate responsibility for the attack”. Pakistan’s rote refugee accompanying any cross-border terror attack of blaming ‘non-state-actors’ has lost its moral currency and credibility, globally. Recently Pakistan aggravated its ongoing disharmony with Afghanistan when it claimed to have killed 50 Afghan border troops and destroyed five posts across the Af-Pak border – no amount of platitudes and homilies like “sadness” at having to attack Afghans, “as they are our Muslims brothers”, cuts ice in either Kabul or Tehran. Islamabad’s sole investment in its ‘all-weather-friendship’ with Beijing, is fraught with increasing risks from all other sides, as the remaining three border nations contiguous to its geography are in an unusually aggressive mood. Ashraf Ghani had virtually closed doors on Pakistan and turned down an invitation to visit, Modi has made his mind known, and now the Iranians have converged to add that Iran, “cannot accept the continuation of this situation”. Tehran issued a cutting statement against the Janus-face of Islamabad, after Pakistan joined the sectarian grouping of 39 Sunni countries (‘Islamic Military Alliance to Fight Terrorism’), under the operational leadership of former Pakistani Chief of Staff, General Raheel Sharif, and Iran stated incredulously, “Countries which seek to join anti-terrorist coalitions must answer how they are incapable of countering armed bandits and terrorist groups on their own soil” – echoing a very familiar sentiment that Kabul and Delhi routinely posit at the Pakistanis. Unsurprisingly, Iran, India and Afghanistan are strategically converging on various geopolitical, economic and security domains that willy-nilly tighten the strategic noose around Pakistan. The common grouse amongst the three surrounding neighbours is one of Islamabad consistently falling shorts of its commitments. The cold optics of the reciprocal summoning of the Ambassadors posted at both Tehran and Islamabad was symbolic of the regional isolation of Pakistan, and the emerging grouping of the three anti-Pakistan nations.

Security men during a search operation at Lal Chowk in Srinagar on Saturday. Tribune Photo: Amin War

Majid Jahangir

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, June 10

Security forces had a busy day today. From mountainous Line of Control (LoC) to busy Lal Chowk to senstive south Kashmir, forces were on toes to track militants.An unidentified militant was killed in a gunfight as the Army foiled an infiltration bid in the Gurez sector of Bandipore district, over 150 km from Srinagar.Defence sources said a group of militants was intercepted close to the LoC in the Gurez sector during the intervening night of Friday and Saturday by soldiers.“As militants were challanged, they opened fire triggering a gunfight. The body of one militant was recovered this morning and one weapon was recovered,” they said, adding that the combing operation was still underway.There is a possibility that other militants of the group may have fled back during the exchange of fire.At least 13 militants have been killed in four gunfights close to LoC in Nowgam, Machil in frontier Kupwara district, Uri in Baramulla and Gurez in Bandipore since Wednesday. An Army jawan was also killed in one of these gunfights. At least six infiltration bids have been foiled in past four day along the LoC in Kashmir. Army claims that these multiple infiltration attempts along the LoC are backed by Pakistan Army.“The sinister designs of the Pakistan army to push in multiple groups of armed intruders across the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir continue to be defeated by proactive operations being carried out on the LoC,” Udhampur-based spokesman for the Northern Command said.“The explosives, inflammable material, arms and ammunition recovered from the armed intruders indicate Pakistan’s designs to orchestrate high-profile terror incidents targeting innocent civilian population and security forces during the holy month of Ramazan,” the spokesman added.This year, the Army claims that it has foiled 24 infiltration attempts and 40 militants have been killed.Local hurt in militant attackA civilian was injured on Saturday morning when militants opened fire on security forces’ vehicles on the Srinagar-Jammu national highway in Anantnag district.The police said the militants fired upon the two security forces’ vehicles at Vesu and missed the target injuring a civilian in a car. The injured was identified as Arif, a resident of Bakshiabad, Anantnag, and his condition is stated to be stable.

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, June 8

Chief of Army Staff General Bipin Rawat will be the reviewing officer for the June 10 passing-out parade (POP) of the Indian Military Academy, Dehradun.After reviewing the parade at the historic Chetwode drill square that will also lead to the culmination of training of 423 Indian and 67 foreign Gentlemen Cadets from 10 friendly foreign countries, General Rawat will address the Gentlemen Cadets.Meanwhile, a day ahead of the parade, the ceremonial commandant’s parade took place at the Indian Military Academy today. Addressing the cadets, IMA Commandant Lt Gen SK Upadhya asserted that the Army’s reputation rested firmly on their shoulders.He exhorted the Gentlemen Cadets that the honour they had earned through hard work must be retained by them by living up to the Army’s core values of character, competence, commitment and compassion. “These values are reflected in the IMA’s code of conduct and the Gentlemen Cadets aspiring to high ideals must demonstrated these at all times,” he said.He also reminded the cadets that as they took the final step to join as officers of the Indian Army, the expectations of an entire nation were on them. “Being in uniform, you have a definite role in contributing to society and building of the nation,” Lt Gen Upadhya told the Gentlemen Cadets.A large number of schoolchildren from Dehradun and neighbouring cities, local citizens and Army personnel with their friends and families witnessed the impressive parade.On the other hand, security arrangements in Dehradun have been tightened keeping in view the passing-out parade. Elaborate security arrangements have been made at areas in close proximity to the IMA campus.