Monthly Archives: August 2018

Washington, May 22

Pakistan has raised with the World Bank the alleged violation of the Indus Waters Treaty by India, which inaugurated the Kishanganga hydro project in Kashmir, as the multilateral lender sought opportunities within the treaty to find an amicable resolution of the issue.The four-member Pakistani delegation, led by Attorney General Ashtar Ausaf Ali, met the World Bank officials here yesterday, days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the 330 MW Kishanganga hydroelectric project in Jammu and Kashmir.The inauguration of the hydroelectric project was held amid protests from Pakistan, which claims that the dam on a river flowing into Pakistan will disrupt water supplies.Pakistan’s Foreign Office had, on Friday, voiced concern over the inauguration of the hydroelectric project, saying inauguration without resolution of dispute between the two countries will tantamount to violation of the Indus Waters 1960 that regulates the use of waters in the shared rivers.”The Indus Waters Treaty is a profoundly important international agreement that provides an essential cooperative framework for India and Pakistan to address current and future challenges of effective water management to meet human needs and achieve development goals,” a World Bank spokesperson told PTI.”The meetings are discussing concerns raised by the Pakistan delegation and opportunities within the treaty to seek an amicable resolution,” the spokesperson said.No other details about the nature of Pakistani grievances were made available by the World Bank officials.The discussions are scheduled to continue today.Pakistani daily Dawn said the talks would cover four key points: the height of the dam built on the Kishanganga River, its capacity to hold water, Pakistan’s demand for setting up a court of arbitration to settle the dispute and India’s counter-demand for an international expert.Islamabad had been raising objections over the design of the hydel project, saying it is not in line with the criteria laid down under the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) between the two countries. But, India says the project design was well within parameters of the treaty.The project, located at Bandipore in North Kashmir, envisages diversion of water of Kishan Ganga river to underground power house through a 23.25-km-long head race tunnel to generate 1713 million units per annum.The Kishanganga project was started in 2007 but on May 17, 2010, Pakistan moved for international arbitration against India under the provisions of the Indus Waters Treaty.The Hague-based International Court of Arbitration allowed India in 2013 to go ahead with construction of the project in North Kashmir and upheld India’s right under the bilateral Indus Waters Treaty to divert waters from the Kishanganga for power generation in Jammu and Kashmir.The international court, however, decided that India shall release a minimum flow of nine cubic metres per second into the Kishanganga river (known as Neelam in Pakistan) at all times to maintain environmental flows.  PTI 

Ajay Banerjee in New DelhiIn the heat of May in Rajasthan, a squadron of helicopters flew a few metres above ground, attempting to evade ‘enemy radars.’ On ground, in a separate corridor, moved a column of T-90 tanks in attack formation. The Indian Army’s tested ‘Air Cavalry’ – a concept the US introduced in 1965. The US’ first ‘Air Cavalry’ division arrived in Vietnam in August and September 1965. Airmobile operations used helicopters to fly over difficult terrains and move behind enemy lines to air-assault targeted objectives. The ‘air cavalry’ was tried during the four-week exercise ‘Vijay Prahar’ conducted by the Jaipur-headquartered South Western Command at the Mahajan field firing ranges near Suratgarh. The concept of ‘Air Cavalry’ employing attack and weaponized helicopters has been validated, a statement from the South Western Command said at the end of the exercise on May 9. The exercise was aimed at designing an offensive battle on the principles of a ‘deep air-land battle’ with real-time intelligence-surveillance and reconnaissance using space-based technology. It used the elements of the Mathura-based 1 Strike Corps, about 25,000 troops, tanks, UAVs, IAF fighter jets and attack helicopters. It included a component of fighting and surviving in battle after a tactical nuclear weapon is fired by the enemy.Manoj Joshi, Distinguished Fellow at the Observor Research Foundation (ORF) National Security Programme, disagrees with the use of attack helicopters beyond the ‘forward edge’ of the battle. With fluid battle conditions, defining the ‘forward edge’ would be tough. In the era of shoulder-fired missiles, a low-flying armed copter cannot be used in an offensive style. There are other ways to use a copter, he said. He cited the example of Soviet helicopters being hit during the Afghan invasion (1979-1989) by the Mujahideen who had US-supplied Stinger missiles. The battle of Karbala in Iraq in 2003 led to the destruction of many American attack copters. The US used the ‘air cavalry’ to some good use, but lost about 5,000 men in Vietnam despite the fact there were no shoulder-fired missiles then, he said.

Why ‘Air Cavalry’ now?

The Army first experimented it in the 1980s. Starting 2019, the Army and the IAF, will start adding the new-age attack copters and the number will go up 230 copters over the next decade. Lt Gen Cherish Mathson, Commander of the South-Western Command, said after the exercise: “We have been working on this (air cavalry) in consonance with the air force.”In 2014, the Ministry of Defence accepted the need to have 39 armed helicopters which will fly overhead when ground-based Strike Corps elements move in for an attack.

Tactical N-strike

In the second week of February this year, the US Congress heard director of National Intelligence Dan Coats on possible worldwide threats. He warned how Pakistan continues to develop short-range tactical weapons.The Indian assessment says tactical nukes are an option for Pakistan if the ‘Cold-Start’ doctrine — a strike by armoured units deep inside Pakistan — is operationalized. A tactical nuke is small warhead targeted at ground forces. The Army is gearing itself to fight and win in the battle field ‘contaminated’ by a nuclear strike. “It a real threat. we must keep practising it”, says Lt Gen KJ Singh (retd),  a former Western Army Commander, who was in 63 Cavalry, a 1971 war decorated regiment.Almost all the Russian-origin T-90 and T-72 tanks — the prime fighting machines on the western front — have been fitted with a specialized kit to allow troops to survive and even carry forward with a counter-attack in case of tactical nuclear strike.

New Delhi, May 17

Security agencies were keeping their fingers crossed over a fresh unilateral ceasefire announced by the Centre during Ramzan beginning today, as a similar exercise nearly two decades ago witnessed the killings of 129 people, including 43 security personnel, according to officials.The security agency officials felt a need to monitor the situation closely as terror groups had used such a window as an opportunity to regroup themselves and carry out more attacks on security establishments.The Centre yesterday announced that security forces would not launch any operation in the state during the holy month of Ramzan but they reserved the right to retaliate, if attacked.The announcement came ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday.“It is important to isolate the forces that bring a bad name to Islam by resorting to mindless violence and terror,” a Home Ministry spokesperson had said yesterday.During his Independence Day address last year, Modi had said bullets or abuses would not resolve the Kashmir issue and that it could be addressed by embracing every Kashmiri.Quoting data, the officials said that during the unilateral ceasefire, popularly known as NICO—‘Non Initiation of Combat Operations’, which was announced on November 19, 2000 and came into effect on November 28, terrorists carried out three ‘fidayeen’ (suicide) attacks on Army cantonment, police control room and Srinagar airport, and two massacres.The previous ceasefire, which was announced by the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and extended twice—January 24, 2001 and on February 22 of the same year—also witnessed an attack on former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah.From November 19, 2000 to May 23, 2001, 44 terrorists were killed by the security forces. During the period, 42 civilians also died which included massacre of six Sikh civilians at Mehjoor Nagar in Srinagar on February 3, 2001 and 15 civilians by Lashker-e-Toiba terror outfit at Morha Salui in Rajouri district on February 10.During this period, the first Kashmiri ‘fidayeen’ suicide bomber Afaq Ahmed Shah blew himself along with an explosive-laden car outside Badami Bagh Cantonment area on December 25, killing four security personnel.According to the officials, the number of terrorists killed during the period was 44, civilians 42, Army (six), police (24) and other security forces (13).This included a ‘fidayeen’ attack by terrorists at the Jammu and Kashmir Police control room on February 9, in which 12 people—eight policemen and four militants—were killed.During the period, nine security force personnel were killed in two land mine blasts in Pulwama and Kaigam on January 18, and 15 policemen and two civilians were killed in an ambush at Morha Chatru in Rajouri district on March 2, 2001.The NICO ended on May 23 after Vajpayee chaired a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security. — PTI

Vijay Mohan

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 13

As part of welfare measures for its personnel deployed in anti-Naxal operations (ANO), the Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force (ITBP) has not only reduced their tenure of deployment in affected areas but will also offer them choice postings thereafter.“These issues along with other welfare schemes came up for discussions during the visit of ITBP Director General RK Pachnanda to an operationally deployed battalion last week,” a senior ITBP officer said.The DG has decided that personnel completing two years of deployment in Maoist-affected areas will have the choice of either continuing at their present location or opt for a transfer, he added.Further, it was also projected that considering the difficulties and stress involved in an ANO tenure, a posting of choice may be given to all officers and men and the same has been agreed to in principle.The ITBP, which is responsible for the peace time management of the 3,488 km-long mountainous border with China, has eight battalions deployed for anti-Naxal operations in Chhattisgarh.One battalion comprises over 1,000 personnel. The ITBP is one of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) under the Home Ministry that are deployed for anti-Naxal operations in addition to their regular charter.In addition, the ministry has also issued new guidelines on posting of CAPF personnel who are “care-givers” to disabled dependents. Such personnel may be exempted from the routine exercise of transfer or rotational postings, subject to administrative constraints.This follows a Delhi High Court order of January 2018 directing the Home Minister to formulate a policy for posting of such personnel.Consequently, the Home Ministry has issued directions recently to all CAPFs that guidelines and provisions of tenures and other rules for peace and field postings may be relaxed by the competent authority on merits so as to meet the requirement of care-givers.

Washington, May 8

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday pulled out of the landmark nuclear deal with Iran, an Obama-era accord which he has repeatedly criticised.”It is clear to me that we cannot prevent Iran’s nuclear bomb. The Iran deal is defective at its core. Therefore, I am announcing today that the United States would withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal,” Trump said.Moments later he signed a fresh set of sanctions against Iran and warned countries against any cooperation with Iran on its nuclear weapons programme.Ever since his election campaign, Trump has frequently criticised the Obama-era Iran nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA.The Iran nuclear deal was reached in Vienna in July 2015 between Iran and the P5 (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council) plus Germany and the European Union.Trump’s decision would have global ramifications, straining Iranian economy and heightening tensions in the Middle East. PTI

The security forces, including personnel from the Rashtriya Rifles (RR), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and the Special Operations Group (SOG) of the state police cordoned off Drabgam village receiving a tip-off about holed-up militants. ANI

Our Correspondent

Srinagar, April 30  

Two Hizbul Mujahideen militants, including Sameer Ahmed Bhat, alias Sameer Tiger, were killed in the Pulwama encounter on Monday, said officials.

Earlier, two Army men, including a major, were injured in the gunfight between militants and security forces in Drubgam village of Pulwama, officials said.

The two militants were trapped in the area, the officials added.

Security forces launched a cordon and search operation in Drabgam area after receiving information about the presence of two to three militants in the area, a police official said.(Read: Sameer Tiger found death waiting in village he called home)As the security forces were closing in, the militants opened indiscriminate fire on them, the official said.

The civilian was killed when security forces were trying to chase away a stone-pelting mob, they said.

Civilians wanted to throng the encounter site so that the militants could run away, an official said.

Around noon, security personnel, who were fighting stone pelting from the civilians, fired at heavily at the house, thereby creating an explosion, officials said.

About an hour later, the first militant, identified as Aaquib Mushtaq, was killed. He was a local resident belonging to Pulwama’s Rajpora area.

One of the injured is a Major-rank officer, who has hit by a bullet in the arm. Both the injured soldiers were evacuated to the Army’s 92 base hospital for treatment, the officials said.The civilian killed in the clashes was identified as Shahid Ahmad Dar, they said, adding that the circumstances in which the 25-year-old youth was killed are being ascertained. With Agencies

Army officials said that strategically sensitive equipment that are used in enemy operations are stored here, making it impossible to allow civilians gain access to many of these roads.

HYDERABAD:  After all, not all Cantonment roads may be opened to the public. Days after the Ministry of Defence ordered opening of all cantonment roads, Lieutenant General DR Soni, who is the General Officer Commanding-in-chief (GOC-in-C) of Indian Army’s Southern command based in Pune, has put his foot down against the move. He is understood to have sought a review, which in all likelihood is going to result in most SCB roads remaining out of bounds for the public forever.

The review, once undertaken, could possibly stretch for more than two months and till such time, the Local Military Authority (LMA) will prevent civilians from using a majority of the roads. So far, public is being allowed on 11 of the 25 Cantonment roads while others will remain ‘no-go’ zones.

‘‘The General has sought a review and study of security protocols. The matter concerns national security and we cannot allow civilians all over Cantonment area. There is no problem with civilians but who will guarantee that anti-national elements, in the grab of civilians, do not take advantage of the situation ?’’ top Army sources told Express.

Army officials said that strategically sensitive equipment that are used in enemy operations are stored here, making it impossible to allow civilians gain access to many of these roads. Besides strategically sensitive equipment, the cantonment is home to 54 divisions and 76 Brigades apart from the Bison divisional headquarters, a fighting formation of the Indian Army. That makes it one of the most important Army stations in the Country.
“It is here that we and our men get trained everyday to be war ready.  Many of these areas are sensitive from the security point of view and we do not have even mobile phone connectivity here. Our Jawans get trained here starting from 6 am, and opening all roads will become a hindrance to their training. Besides, our communications centres are here, so are the weaponry and defence labs. We have to safeguard them. If something goes wrong here, then it could be disastrous.

People taking a detour of a few kilometres is better than putting the nation itself to risk by opening all roads,’’ Army officials said. “The Cantonment has existed since the time of Independence and was planned far away from the city. Will the authorities allow general public to pass through the Chief Minister’s camp office or the state Secretariat ? What is so secretive there?’’ an official questioned.

Army officials added that though the security scenario in the country was, by and large, better till 2000, in the last 10 to 15 years, the situation has gone from bad to worse in terms of threats from the neighbouring countries which demands heightened security measures. “Even in countries like China, Pakistan, USA or UK, civilians are not allowed anywhere closer to Army bases.’’

Morning walkers prevented from taking Wellington road
Hyderabad: Though the Local Military Authority (LMA) termed the incident where morning walkers were prevented from using the AOC roads on Wednesday morning as rumours, walkers were again prevented on Thursday morning from taking Wellington road in AOC line unit by Army men guarding the locality. However, vehicles continued to ply on the stretch.

Speaking to Express, T Satish Kumar, one of the morning walkers said, “We don’t understand that why Army men are not allowing morning walkers in the AOC line. At the time of restrictions on roads closure, they allowed morning walkers but now they are not doing so.” On contacting J Rama Krishna vice president of SCB said,“We are planning to conduct a meeting with LMA officials. “In the meeting, we requested them not to restrict civilians commuting in Cantonment area. All the issues will be solved in next two-three days.” He said that the roads that were closed are thrown open now and remaining four roads will be opened soon.

With the elections looming in Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif has been forced into a gambit of having to name-and-shame the military and judiciary into a blame-game that virtually compromises on the sovereign narrative on sensitive issues.

The recurring maxim ‘States have armies, but the Pakistani Army has a State’ has led to a cloak-and-dagger game between the civilian politicians in Islamabad and the burly military generals, 20 km down the road in Rawalpindi. Since 1958, when the Pakistani military under General Ayub Khan initiated the first coup d’état, martial law has been officially in place for 34 years and for the balance 36 years, the generals have pulled the strings from behind public glare. The second official coup in 1977 by General Zia was perversely codenamed ‘Operation Fair Play’, and the third entailing a ‘mid-air’ drama culminated in General Musharraf anointing himself, first as ‘Chief Executive’ and then as a ‘President’ for over eight years. All official military interventions in Pakistan have had popular support initially, as the military has consistently projected itself as an effective alternative that is at odds to the civil-political culture, and its accompanying perceptions of ineptitude, corruption and kinship. Pakistan’s greatest political survivor, Nawaz Sharif, has been booted out of the office of prime-ministership, all three times, by the military-judiciary and not by the opposition parties. Ironically, Nawaz was a political creation of General Zia in the 80s. However, he has had a tumultuous equation with all six Pakistani military chiefs who have tenured with him. The first time he was coerced into demitting the office by General Waheed Kakar in 1993, it made him paranoid about trying to get pliant generals by tinkering with the norm of seniority and, almost always, getting it wrong. Sharif’s heightened sense of insecurity came to forth in dealing with one of Pakistan’s most distinguished, apolitical and professional Chairmen of Joint Chief Staff, Gen Jehangir Karamat, after unwarranted paranoia emanating from a lecture made by the General suggesting the reestablishment of the National Security Council (something Sharif was forced into reviving, 15 years later in 2013). Sharif had bundled out General Karamat only to usher in an ostensibly ‘safe’Mohajir, Gen Pervez Musharraf, after getting Musharraf to supersede two senior officers, only to have ‘Tricky Mush’ plan Kargil within six months and then exile Sharif in another eight months!In Pakistan, the third leg of the establishment troika is the judiciary that has, more often than not, acquiesced to the military in providing legitimacy and legal cover in taking on the politicians. The quantum of rebuke to the ruling politicians depends on the perceived intransigence of the red-lines by the generals — even, political proxies like Imran Khan are nudged to muster street protests and wage legal battles against ruling dispensations. Generals also enforce pressure by sending unsubtle messages like sacking six military officers for corruption and then have the military chief preach, “Enduring peace and stability (will not be established) unless the menace of corruption is uprooted”, deliberately coinciding with Sharif’s battle for survival owing to corruption charges on himself. The subsequent drama ensued in the courtrooms with a fairly insignificant charge of ‘non-disclosure’ slapped on Sharif for a petty amount that he was entitled to, but actually never received! Today, the judiciary has bent, nailed and completed the hatchet job of ‘judicial coup’ for the military by ruling that the disqualification on Sharif under Article 62 (1)(f) of the constitution is for life. One standard tactic of the comeback-whiz Sharif had been to selectively project the nefarious and vested role of the military in dim light, and especially harp on its insidious impact and agenda in Pakistan. Sharif has conceded about being in the dark on Kargil, he had later called it a ‘misadventure’ that was tantamount to ‘stabbed in the back’. The quintessential politician in Sharif has made deliberate, calculated and successful attempts at delinking himself from the embarrassing decisions made by the Generals and connected with the electoral mainstream, whenever they have tired of the military bluster and bravado. Today, however, Sharif has been boxed into a tight corner by the military-judiciary combine and can only lament, “You can’t run a country if you have two or three parallel governments. This has to stop. There can only be one government: the constitutional one” and tried to blame the military for its extra-constitutional role in the Afghan crisis by accusing, “We have isolated ourselves. Despite giving sacrifices, our narrative is not being accepted. Afghanistan’s narrative is being accepted, but ours is not” and further embarrassing the military by alluding to the patronised terror industry, “Militant organisations are active. Call them non-state actors, should we allow them to cross the border and kill 150 people in Mumbai?” Nawaz also roped in the judiciary-military nexus by pointing to the pace of Mumbai trial and wondering, “Why can’t we complete the trial.”Besides the shaming of the military-judiciary combine, to whom Sharif attributes his recent fall, he has even contradicted the Pakistani sovereign position on several sensitive matters. This unprecedented gambit has met with expected backlash from the opposition parties and military and the judiciary reacting with indefensible accusations of ‘sovereign compromise’. By this high-risk, high-gain gamble, Sharif hopes to expose the constraints of the civilian-government-in-charge in Islamabad and galvanise his constituency by projecting himself as the martyr in service of democracy. This seemingly extreme track has been literally forced upon Sharif, with national elections due in a couple of months. Nawaz is punting on driving a deep wedge in the ‘moral position’appropriated by the Pakistani military and judiciary in its 70 years of stuttering democracy. However, prevailing perceptions of the endemic corruption associated with the Sharif family may finally be his undoing, with the military carefully orchestrating the optics of a constitutionally approved process in booting out Sharif, yet again.