Home Minister Rajnath Singh in Srinagar on Monday. Amin War

Ehsan Fazili

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, September 11

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh today said there was “much improvement” in the situation in strife-torn Kashmir compared to last year and that the Centre had devised a strategy based on “five Cs” to resolve the crisis.Before leaving for Jammu as part of his four-day visit to the state, Rajnath said the “five Cs” stood for “compassion, communication, co-existence, confidence-building and consistency”. (Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)During his visit, Rajnath reviewed the security situation as well as implementation of the Prime Minister’s development package. He interacted with leaders of various political parties and other stakeholders. “What I have observed is that the tree of peace has not dried up in Kashmir. Green shoots of peace are visible on dry trees,” said the Home Minister, who is expected to follow the same schedule in Jammu. Rajnath said his visit was in the backdrop of PM Narendra Modi’s Independence Day remarks wherein he called for “hugging Kashmiris”. “That’s why I have come with an open heart to talk to all stakeholders.”On talks with separatists, he said there was no question of a formal or informal invitation as the government was “ready to talk to any stakeholder who wanted to talk for restoring peace in Kashmir”. About “abrogating” Article 35A, he said the Centre would not go against the sentiments of the Kashmiris. On Pakistan, Rajnath said the neighbouring nation must stop “terror infiltration” and respond positively to the peace moves initiated by New Delhi. “PM Modi has walked the extra mile to improve relations. Terrorism has destroyed many generations, but the government will not allow the future generations to get harmed,” he said.  Appealing to outsiders to visit the Valley for tourism as well as business, Rajnath said a wrong message had gone out that Kashmir was unsafe to travel.

HM: Don’t send youngsters under 18 to jail

• Home Minister Rajnath Singh has directed the state not to treat youngsters below 18 years as criminals as “they may have been misled by wrong elements”. He said action should only be taken under the juvenile Act. “They should not be sent to jails but to juvenile homes. I have suggested to CM Mehbooba Mufti to counsel the youngsters properly.” Rajnath also directed the security forces “not to take excessive action at any place”.

MIFFED: Pakistan has reacted sharply, suspending high-level contact with the US.

Vivek Katju

PAKISTAN’S security and foreign policy managers have faced a very difficult period beginning with President Donald Trump’s August 21 Afghanistan and South Asia policy address and stretching to the Xiamen BRICS Summit declaration on September 4. The two statements, so different in origin, struck blows, in different ways, against Pakistan’s policy objectives in Afghanistan and the region in three areas that the country considers vital to its core interests. First, Pakistan’s reliance on non-official elements in many cases ideologically obscurantist and wedded to violence to act, as directed, in the neighbourhood. Second, the maintenance of the Chinese shield. Third, the reduction, if not the elimination, of India’s presence in Afghanistan.Trump directly accused Pakistan of pursuing a duplicitous policy in Afghanistan and peremptorily demanded that it close down the safe havens for the Afghan Taliban. He virtually threatened that a failure to do so would invite unspecified consequences. The Americans have known, in the past, that Pakistan was taking vast sums of their money and at the same time allowing the Taliban to operate against their forces in Afghanistan, killing around 2,500 US service personnel since 2003. However, whereas Obama and Bush were obviously willing to overlook Pakistani conduct for larger geopolitical reasons, Trump is not ready to do so. His generals have told him the key to clear up the Afghan mess is to militarily degrade the Taliban and for that purpose the safe havens must end. He has gone along with that view. Pakistan reacted with fury at Trump’s plain speaking. Both the National Assembly and the Senate adopted resolutions condemning Trump’s comments. Going beyond words, Pakistan suspended high-level contact with the US, including putting on hold foreign minister Khawaja Asif’s official visit to the US. Pakistan also looked to China for support which came quickly. Predictably, the ‘all-weather friend’ repeated the Pakistani narrative: few countries have done as much and suffered as much in fighting terrorism as Pakistan has.In this background, the Xiamen declaration caused dismay in Pakistan for China agreed, for the first time, to include foreign-oriented Pakistan-based terrorist groups — Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani Network — in a BRICS document, and that too, at the summit level. China joined other countries, including India, in expressing concern at the violence caused by these groups. While doing so, the Chinese sought to provide Pakistan cover by mentioning the Tehreek-e-Taliban-e-Pakistan (TTP) which is fighting the Pakistan state and also because the LeT and JeM are formally banned in Pakistan.  A perception that China had let go of the shield, if only momentarily, on Pakistani double standards on the jihadi tanzeems, caused a jolt. This was exhibited in the dissonance in Pakistani reactions. While defence minister Khurram Dastagir and the foreign ministry formally rejected the BRICS’ declaration, Khawaja Asif told a private Pakistani TV channel that Pakistan cannot test friends forever and must note the changed international environment. Asif travelled to China and sought reassurance of Chinese steadfastness which has come through Chinese commitment to seek to work for normalising Pakistan’s ties with Afghanistan. It is noteworthy that it has not said anything on the JeM or the LeT. Arguably, what Pakistan found most unacceptable in Trump’s South Asia policy was the US desire that India should play a more active role in Afghanistan, even if he signalled only the economic sector for this purpose. It has been Pakistan’s historic desire that Indian influence be curtailed in Afghanistan. In the 1980s, as Pakistan became the base of Afghan jihad, it became more ambitious. It wanted India to be shut out of Afghanistan so that it could get “strategic depth” against it on Afghan territory.Generally the West, especially the US, has pandered to Pakistan’s obsession with India’s presence and position in Afghanistan. It has given a sympathetic ear to Pakistan’s fears of Indian encirclement through Afghanistan. This has been on account of its need for Pakistan in the Afghan context during the anti-Soviet jihad and since 9/11. To satisfy Pakistan, the West designed international diplomatic mechanisms for peace making in Afghanistan which ensured that India was kept out. It is no secret that it tried its best to put India at the periphery at the Bonn conference in 2001 which mapped out the country’s future after the Taliban was ousted from Kabul.The US also counselled successive Afghan governments till a few years ago to exclude India from the security sector and generally balance their relations with India and Pakistan. While shades of change in this approach had come in closing years of the Obama administration, Trump has abandoned US reticence altogether and moved in the other direction. Naturally, Pakistan has poured venom on this US decision and also against India. Pakistan has always lost the plot in Afghanistan for pursuing the aim of acquiring a controlling voice in the country’s India policy. Hardly any Afghan Government has been or would be willing to accept this demand. Only the Taliban played ball but it too was not averse to open up with India. It is this objective which led Pakistan to reject the overtures of both Presidents, Hamid Karzai and Ashraf Ghani. The latter went to the extent of visiting the Pakistan army chief at GHQ, Rawalpindi, to indicate a willingness to exclude India from the security area and build ties in this sector as well as undertake cooperation between the Afghan and Pakistani intelligence agencies. However, even he could not meet the Pakistan’s unbending maximalist demand. As Pakistan deals with Trump and Afghanistan what should India do? While naturally keeping a keen focus on the terrorist groups in Pakistan,  India should seek to maintain its assistance programme. It should respond to Afghan requests, including in the security sector, without ever seeking to be prescriptive. In the defence area, India should increase the training of Afghan personnel in India, provide such equipment and stores as it can without taking Pakistani sensitivities into consideration. From time to time, some Indian security experts urge that India should be willing to send combat troops to Afghanistan. A couple of months ago, a section of the media reported a rumour that India was willing to send 15,000 soldiers to Afghanistan. The rumour soon died down for it was obviously without foundation. In any event, India must not ever think of sending troops to Afghanistan. That would provide Pakistan a historic opportunity to turn Afghan sentiment against India.Thoughtful voices in Pakistan are urging the country to give up its dual approach on fighting terrorism. But they are still in the wilderness.  The writer is a former Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs

Keeping in view tensed condition in the state, an army recruitment rally that was to be held from August 26 to September 6 was postponed. The rally is now being held from August 30 to September 10 at the Ferozepur cantonment. Aspirants from Bathinda, Muktsar, Ferozepur, Fazilka, Faridkot, Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar, Kapurthala and SBS Nagar can appear at the rally for recruitment. Giving this information, the Director, Recruitment, Surinder Heran, said the rally that was to be held on August 26 would now be held in September 3. Similarly, the rally that was to be held on August 27 will now be held on September 4, the recruitment that was to be held on August 28 will now be held on September 5 and the schedule for August 29 will be carried out on September 6. He added that no changes had been made to the rally that was scheduled from August 30 to September 2. He said only those candidates could participate in the rally who had registered online earlier.Aspirants throng job fairAs many as eight companies recruited candidates at the mega job fair being held at Maharaja Ranjit Singh Punjab Technical University. Approximately 1,100 candidates participated in the job fair on Thursday. More than 130 candidates were shortlisted by the evening. The transportation facility from the MRSPTU to the Bathinda bus stand was also provided to the candidates. The job fair was extended by two days and would continue till September 2. The recruitment process takes the applicants through many stages like aptitude test, pre-placement talk, seminar, group discussion and written test followed by an interview. The selected candidates will be intimated soon.

Sumit Hakhoo

Tribune News Service

Jammu, September 26

A year after the Army’s surgical strikes on terror launch pads located deep inside Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), there is a general perception among the people that the government should stop “selling the strikes” and make efforts to stop infiltration and silence the Pakistani guns along the Line of Control (LoC) and International Border.Since the military strikes, which hit the heart of terror infrastructure supported and run by Pakistan army, the situation in J&K has deteriorated with a marked increase in terror attacks in the Valley. The cross-LoC shelling and firing has destroyed peace of lakhs of civilians.Experts said the Pakistan army, Lashkar-e-Toiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad and Hizbul Muhajideen have stepped up violence despite security forces eliminating leadership of militant organisations.The global terror outfit Al-Qaida is also trying to gain foothold in Kashmir through terrorist commander Zakir Musa, changing the narrative of conflict which is now getting greatly influenced by pan-Islamic jihadi movement.While talking to The Tribune, former Director General of Police Kuldeep Khoda, who was the police chief from 2007-2012, said, “The surgical strikes had an initial impact by way of putting Pakistan on an alert that India could strike deep inside their territory. The fact is that its impact has been lost and Pakistan continues with its terror activities, including financing and arming terrorists.” Khoda has a vast experience in anti-insurgency operations in Kashmir and considered brain behind establishing village defence committees in mid 1990s which demoralised the terrorists.He said, “The recent success of security forces in eliminating terrorists in Kashmir will get neutralised as infiltration from PoK continues with the help of Pakistan. Local recruitment of militants in south Kashmir and the Banihal area has also picked up,” Khoda said.Echoing similar views, former Director Information, J&K, KB Jandyal, who had held important positions in the administration, said the surgical strikes shattered the perception that the Army would not attack the terror camps run by Pakistan but the level of violence in J&K had not decreased.“Ceasefire violations have increased. Pakistan is making efforts to increase violence and spill blood of our citizens and soldiers. The Centre should have cornered Pakistan but that does not seem to be true on the ground except diplomatic efforts to isolate them. Further in insurgency, one has to dominate the mind of the adversary but we in J&K lack a dedicated strategy to dominate even cyberspace,” said Jandyal.Panthers Party leader Harsh Dev Singh targeted the Central government for harping on surgical strikes even as things have worsened for people living along the LoC and International Border. “The Central government has failed to take strong steps against terrorists. People living in Jammu, Rajouri and Poonch are suffering due to attacks from across the border almost daily,” he said.‘Go for the final surgical strike’ Civilians living along the border areas are suffering due to Pak shelling and firing. Thoru Ram from Allah village in the Arnia sector said his village, located 35 km from Jammu city, was bearing the brunt of intense shelling from Pakistan for days now. “I would like to ask Prime Minister Narendra Modi to go for a final surgical strike on Pakistan to silence the terrorist nation so that our people can live in peace. We don’t want statements only but a strong action against the enemy,” said Thoru Ram, sitting along with his family in a bunker. 

File photo

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 15

The Union Cabinet this evening approved release of an additional instalment of dearness allowance (DA) from January 1.The decision was taken at a meeting of the Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whereby the Central Government employees and pensioners would get additional 2 per cent DA (of the basic pay/pension).(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)The decision, which would benefit about 48.85 lakh Central Government employees and 55.51 lakh pensioners, was taken to compensate for price rise, an official statement said.The increase is in accordance with the accepted formula, which is based on the recommendations of the 7th Central Pay Commission.The combined impact on the exchequer on account of both dearness allowance and dearness relief would be Rs. 5,857.28 crore per annum and Rs.6,833.50 crore during the financial year 2017-18 (for a period of 14 months from January, 2017 to February, 2018), the statement added.

Saragarhi Sarai in Amritsar. Tribune photo

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, August 30

The SGPC has decided to set up a memorial gallery in the holy city that will be dedicated to the Sikh soldiers who have laid down their lives for the country.SGPC president Kirpal Singh Badungar said the special gallery would be opened in the Saragarhi Niwas, an addition to the inns being operated by the apex body near the Golden Temple.Saragarhi Foundation president Gurinderpal Singh Josan, secretaries Manjit Singh and Kanwaljit Singh Josan today held a meeting with Badungar. The gallery would be inaugurated on September 10. Gurmat programmes have been scheduled on September 12 at Gurdwara Bajidpur in Ferozepur.The Battle of Saragarhi is considered to be one of the greatest last stands in the history. As many as 21 soldiers of the 36 Sikh Regiment fought against 10,000 Afghan soldiers and killed more than 600 before perishing to enemy bullets. The battle took place September 12, 1897 in Tirah region of North-West Frontier Province, now in Pakistan. Saragarhi was a post that connected British India forts of Lockhart and Gulistan on the border areas of Afghanistan.Badungar said even as the story of Saragarhi is a part of school curriculum in countries like France, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom, but it was pity that the Indian government never spared a thought of it.“It is a disappointment that our young generation is unaware of their bravery. Our endeavour was to apprise the youth about it. We will also install a special model measuring 6X3 foot depicting this historic battle. The gallery would have pictures and portraits of Sikh soldiers and other relevant material related to the battle,” he said.

The US suffers from a shortsighted sense of history, whereas the North Koreans invoke the lesser known facts of US history, footprint and machinations in Korea

North Korea”s intermediate-range strategic ballistic rocket Hwasong-12 lifted off from the launching pad near Pyongyang in August. AFP

Lt-Gen Bhopinder Singh (Retd)

North Korea’s reputation as a roguish and dangerously belligerent regime is a self-earned and -established narrative, though the entirety of the truth on the genesis and the evolution of the crisis in the Korean peninsula is based on incomplete truths that belie the complete facts of history and the accompanying role of the US, over the years. Like the infamous spin-doctoring of the presence of ‘Weapons of Mass Destruction’ (WMDs) in Iraq, which ostensibly legitimised the US invasion of Iraq – which later spun into aunbridled mayhem by the convenient US withdrawal, is playing out a narrative today in the battlefields, from Syria and Libya to Yemen. Earlier, the same incomplete and convenient US intervention in Afghanistan had left a devastated and destroyed country to the mercy and bloodlust of the erstwhile US-supported mujahidin. That Saddam Hussein or Afghan warlords were once feted and armed by the US is a glossed-over patina that is systematically swept under the carpet as it allows the plausible option for the US to retain the moral high ground. North Korea’s penchant for nuclear-tipped theatrics is now equally matched by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal drama and proclivity for the ‘fantastic’ – from dropping the GBU-43 MOAB (aka mother of all bombs) in war-torn Afghanistan to raining 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles on a dilapidated airstrip in Syria, the end result of which in both cases was a military dud. The whimsical unpredictability of leadership in both Pyongyang and Washington DC bodes ill. North Korea’s relative isolation from the information highway, with its limited ability or desire to communicate externally, ensures that complete truths on the North Korean saga and the shortcomings of the US history and subsequent policies never mar the global perceptions. The global thaw in the post-Cold War era had reached the Korean peninsula as well, with the signing of the 1994 Agreed Framework, wherein the then-nascent North Korean nuclear programme did agree to freeze the weapons development in exchange for promised aid in a quid pro quo. What is lesser known is the stuttering and delaying of the promised US aid, as presumably the US Congress in the Clinton era, was Republican-controlled. As part of the deal, Pyongyang did shut shop at its Yongbyon reactor till 2003. The non-fulfilment of the deal by the US made North Korea surreptitiously restart its covert operations of uranium-based n-capability. George W Bush added to the Kim-regime’s fears with the famous triad of ‘Axis of Evil’, wherein he suggested a regime-change, similar to the one undertaken in Iraq. Sanctions were imposed and a crucial Macau bank with North Korean accounts was frozen. North Korea retaliated and boycotted the six-party talks with the condition that sanctions be lifted. Multiple signals from Pyongyang for negotiations with the US were cavalierly rebuffed. North Korea responded with a tit-for-tat and conducted its first nuclear test in 2006. Its attempts to blackmail the US with its show of  military strength resulted in missile tests in 2009, 2013, 2016 and 2017. As late as 2015, the Obama government felt it below its dignity to discuss a joint Chinese-North Korean proposal for freezing North Korean weapons in exchange for ending US military manoeuvres in the Korean peninsula. The ascendancy of Donald Trump has exacerbated the situation. As North Korea exhibits instincts of a dictatorial regime bent on survival, the US efforts are towards further tightening of the sanctions-led noose (UNSC resolution 2375 was passed last week). Suggestions to negotiate with North Korea by offering to consider the request of suspending US military exercises, by Beijing and Moscow, have been described by Nikki Haley as ‘insulting’. Both Pyongyang and Washington DC are saddled with impulsive bullies who feed partial truths to their respective constituents. The US suffers from a shortsighted sense of history, whereas the North Koreans invoke the lesser known facts of US history, footprint and machinations in Korea. As Naom Chomsky succinctly states, “You can say it’s the worst regime in history, whatever you like, but they have been following a pretty rational tit-for-tat policy.”North Korea is a child of WW2North Korea is a vivisected child of WW2 and the immediate aftermath of the Cold War era that neatly divided the world into two camps: the US-led and the Communist bloc. The bloody Korean War (1950-53) resulted in a ‘draw’ along the 38th parallel, accounting for over 3 million deaths, most of them in modern day North Korea which lost an unprecedented 15% of its population to the incessant US bombings. Memories of 635,000 tons of bombs (mostly on North Korea) and of 32,557 tons of napalm are preserved and kept alive in North Korea today. The West’s blithely forgotten horrors of the US carpet-bombing are carefully contexualised and rationalised by the successive Kim-dynasts to excuse decades of privation to its populace, and to retain the paranoia about the imminent US attack. The legendary US General MacArthur had testified against his own nation’s policy in the Senate’s Committee on Armed Services and Committee on Foreign Relations by stating: “The war in Korea has already almost destroyed that nation of 20,000,000 people. I have never seen such devastation. I have seen, I guess, as much blood and disaster as any living man, and it just curdled my stomach the last time I was there. After I looked at the wreckage and those thousands of women and children and everything, I vomited … If you go on indefinitely, you are perpetuating a slaughter such as I have never heard of in the history of mankind.” Like in the Middle East, the savagery, duplicity and selfishness of the West is only remembered by the recipient countries. The writer is a former Lt-Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Islands & Puducherry

Seven-eight intruders were pushed back. — Representational photo

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 26

The Indian Army on Tuesday foiled an infiltration bid by seven-eight armed intruders of Pakistan’s Border Action Team (BAT) in Keran sector of Kupwara in J&K.(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)The intruders came near the Army posts around 1 pm. They were supported by nearby Pakistani posts by mortar and small arms fire.Read: Militant killed as Army foils fresh infiltration bid in Kashmir’s UriThe BAT action was aimed causing damage to Indian posts but any such attempt was thwarted, sources said.There was no casualty on the Indian side and the armed intruders retreated.Firing by Indian posts was under way at the time of filing report.