Monthly Archives: August 2018

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, June 8

Rich tributes were paid on Friday to Sepoy Sukhwinder Singh, who was killed during a standoff attack while on a patrol ahead of the Line of Control (LoC) in the Keran sector of Kupwara district on Thursday.Lt Gen Ranbir Singh, Northern Army Commander along with Lt Gen AK Bhatt, Chinar Corps Commander, and all other ranks, paid homage to the soldier at a ceremony at BB Cantt, a defence spokesman said. Representatives from other security agencies also joined in to pay their last respects to the martyr.Sepoy Sukhwinder Singh sustained bullet injuries during a standoff attack by militants along the LoC in the Keran sector when he was patrolling the forward areas ahead of the fence. He was provided immediate first aid and evacuated to the 92 Base Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.Sepoy Sukhwinder Singh was 26 years old and had joined the Army in 2012. He belonged to Hakam Singh Wala village of Bhagta Bhaika tehsil in Bathinda district of Punjab and is survived by his parents and two brothers. The body has been flown for last rites to his native place, where he would be laid to rest with full military honours.Injured near LoC Sepoy Sukhwinder Singh sustained bullet injuries during a standoff attack by militants along the LoC in the Keran sector when he was patrolling the forward areas ahead of the fence. He was provided immediate first aid and evacuated to the 92 Base Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries

New Delhi, June 7

A suspended Army officer, who is facing a CBI probe for allegedly amassing disproportionate assets, on Thursday knocked the doors of the Supreme Court with a plea that he feared for life from insurgents in Manipur, where he claimed to have been framed in a false corruption case.Lieutenant Colonel Harpreet Singh, who was recently suspended, was posted at Manipur in the intelligence wing of Assam Rifles where he had carried out a series of operations against insurgents in which he claimed that over 100 ultras had surrendered and several of them were killed.A vacation bench of Justices Adarsh Kumar Goel and Ashok Bhushan was today told by Singh’s counsel that the officer had received death threats in April this year when he had gone to Imphal to attend court proceedings in a disproportionate assets (DA) case lodged against him by the CBI.The matter was mentioned in the court for urgent listing by senior advocate S P Singh and advocate Sudhakar Dwivedi and the bench said the plea seeking transfer of the DA case from Imphal to Chandigarh would be heard after re-opening of the top court following the ongoing summer vacations.In his plea, the petitioner has said he had suffered 60 per cent disability due to injuries in operations in Jammu and Kashmir in Kupwara sector and was awarded the Sena Medal in 2002.He said in October 2009, he was sent to Assam Rifles on deputation and he was posted as SO-2 (intelligence) where his duty entailed functioning to control insurgency.”The petitioner (Singh) was able to establish an effective intelligence and liasion network and was successful in getting more that 100 surrenders and apprehensions of the cadres belonging to the major insurgent groups active in the area of Manipur. During anti-insurgency operations, some cadres of the insurgent groups were also killed,” he claimed.As per the petition, Robin Luwang Cha, now the chief of militant outfit People’s Liberation Army, was a senior functionary of the insurgent group and Singh was collecting intelligence inputs against him during his posting at Imphal.The petitioner has claimed that Robin was closely related to an Army officer who was posted in vigilance wing of Assam Rifles.Singh has alleged that the Army officer “used to frequently change the local intelligence informers of Manipur with a view to hamper the anti-insurgency operations” and he “often leaked out the secret information about the conduct of operations resulting in failure of the sensitive operations”.He claimed that the Army officer had often threatened him over phone after which he duly brought to the notice of his superiors the apprehension about the motives and designs of the officer.”For the above reasons, the petitioner is on the radar of the major insurgent groups operating in and around Manipur and faces serious threat to his life,” he said claiming that he would “surely be killed by the insurgent groups” if he goes to attend court proceedings at Imphal.He said his plea seeking transfer of the case from Imphal was dismissed by the apex court in March this year after which he went there to attend court proceedings but he received threat on his phone.The plea said a CBI FIR was lodged under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act in October 2013. – PTI

The Indian Air Force Jaguar aircraft, flown by Air Commodore Sanjay Chauhan, was on a routine training mission, a defence spokesperson said

An Indian Air Force (IAF) Jaguar aircraft crashed in Gujarat’s Kutch soon after take-off this morning, killing the pilot. Reports suggest the plane flew from the Jamnagar air base and crashed near a village.

The aircraft, flown by Air Commodore Sanjay Chauhan, was on a routine training mission, a defence spokesperson said. The plane’s debris was strewn on the fields near a village in Kutch, around 340 km from Ahmedabad.

The incident comes months after an IAF helicopter crashed in Assam’s Majuli island, killing two pilots — Wing Commander J James and Wing Commander D Vats.

“Today morning a Jaguar aircraft on a routine training mission from Jamnagar crashed around 10:30 am,” defence spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Manish Ojha said.

The parts of the IAF’s Jaguar bomber that crashed in Gujarat

A court of inquiry has been ordered by the air headquarters to investigate the cause of the crash.

The Jaguar is a twin-engine, ground attack aircraft which can penetrate deep behind enemy lines on bombing runs. It has a maximum speed of 1,350 kmph or 1.3 times the speed of sound. The aircraft is ageing since it was inducted into the Indian Air Force in 1979 — almost four decades ago.

https://www.ndtv.com/video/news/news/pilot-killed-after-air-force-s-jaguar-crashes-in-gujarat-486483

Tribune News Service

Shimla, May 31

With there being no signs of rain, the state has requisitioned three IAF choppers to douse the raging forest fires in the worst-affected districts of Chamba, Kangra, Hamirpur and Mandi.Forest Minister Govind Thakur on Thursday said the IAF had kept three of its choppers on stand-by and the exercise would be undertaken Friday onwards.“We will press IAF choppers into service which can spray 3,500 litre of water in one sortie at places where it is tough for fire tenders to reach in the absence of roads,” he said.Water to douse the fires will be brought from Pong Dam in Kangra, Govindsagar Dam, Chamera in Chamba and Kol Dam in Bilapur and Pandoh in Mandi. So far a total of 1,544 forest fires have been reported this summer, resulting in a loss of Rs 1.68 crore to forest wealth.The Forest Minister said a total of major 56 forest fires had been reported out of which 12-day-old fire in the Baddi area of Solan and the week-old fire in the Bhattiyat area of Chamba was the most worrisome as these could not be controlled.He said 95 per cent forest fires were caused by human callousness. He added that drone cameras would be used to find out the cause.He said patrolling would be intensified and police assistance would be sought to keep a check on anti-social elements, who were behind these fires.He said there was no dearth of funds for combating forest fires and the department would adopt the latest technology to prevent huge loss resulting from these forest fires, every summer.So far four persons, Deputy Ranger Ashok Kumar in Chamba and three persons, Manju Devi (Sunni), Satwinder (Jaswan) and Chambel Singh (Sarahan), have lost their lives in the forest fires. Six other persons have been injured while trying to control forest fires.CM mourns Dy Ranger’s death Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur mourned the death of Deputy Ranger Ashok Kumar, who lost his life during a fire-fighting operation in Chamba district. The Chamba Deputy Commissioner provided Rs 25,000 as immediate relief to the family of the deceased. Principal Chief Conservator of Forests Dr GS Goraya said the Deputy Ranger died as he fell into a gorge during the fire-fighting operation. He was not charred to death as reported in a section of the media, he added.

Heavy rain in the area caused the landslide. Tribune photo

Tribune News Service

Manali, June 29

The Manali-Leh National Highway-3 has been blocked due to a massive landslide near Marhi at Chumbak mod, nearly 30 km from here.

Heavy rain in the area for the past 24 hours caused the landslide.

The landslide occured late night on Thursday and came into light by early morning on Friday. The local administration was informed by the commuters at around six in the morning.

Border Roads Organisation (BRO) officer Avril Jain confirmed the landslide and said that the road would be clear soon.

“The road clearing operation has started and would be done soon for the traffic. Machines have been deputed along with the BRO engineering team,” said Jain.

Long queues of vehicles were seen on both sides of the highway as the landslide left more than 2,000 vehicles stranded. The police have been deployed to monitor the traffic situation. With agencies

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A mobile application, available in Android and iOS platforms, that would have the facilities for applying, paying and scheduling appointments for acquiring a passport has also been launched.

mPassport Seva App’ launched for applying & scheduling appointments for acquiring a passport

New Delhi, June 26

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday launched a new scheme under which a person can apply for a passport from anywhere in India irrespective of the place of stay.The minister also launched a mobile application, available in Android and iOS platforms, that would have the facilities for applying, paying and scheduling appointments for acquiring a passport.Under the new scheme, launched on the occasion of the Sixth Passport Seva Divas, a person can now choose the Regional Passport Office (RPO) and the Passport Seva Kendra (PSK) or Post Office Passport Seva Kendra (POPSK) for submitting the application. The application can be submitted irrespective of whether the person’s present residential address was within the jurisdiction of the selected RPO or not, a Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) statement said.The police verification, if required for a specific passport, would be conducted at the address specified in the application form, it said. The passport will be printed and despatched by the RPO selected for application submission by the applicant to the address specified in the application, the statement said. — PTI

Smita Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 22

Seychelles President Danny Faure arrived in Gujarat on Friday evening even as it became clear that the proposal for a joint military base in the remote coral Assumption Islands will not find its way into the archipelago nation’s parliament for ratification.On a six-day visit, Faure will be in Delhi on Monday when he will be accorded a ceremonial reception before holding official talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.Earlier, President Faure was quoted by the local media as saying the Assumption Island issue will not be discussed with PM Modi. However, Indian sources suggest the matter is on the table for quiet discussions, though public pressure will not be mounted to allow Seychelles to sort out its own domestic politics.The agreement involves India investing $550m to build a military base to be shared by both countries for up to 30 years. Following public protests on grounds of sovereignty and environmental concerns, the deal was revised on January 27 to clarify issues such as prohibition of nuclear use on the island as well as not allowing India to use the base in war. Yet opposition persists, leaving the minority government with its hands tied.“The government will not present the agreement to the National Assembly (parliament) for approval because Opposition members (who are in majority) have already said they will not ratify it,” Seychelles Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Barry Faure told Reuters just ahead of Faure’s India visit.“Hence the question of whether the agreement has been cancelled or not does arise — we will simply not take it to the Assembly,” he added.New Delhi wants to ensure safety of its vessels in southern Indian Ocean and increase strategic presence in waters as China expands its maritime footprint with its new overseas military base in Djibouti.

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 14

In a first, the UN body OHCHR (UN Human Rights office of The High Commissioner) published a report on human rights situation on both sides of Kashmir and slammed both India and Pakistan.“The 49-page report–the first ever issued by the UN on the human rights situation in Indian-Administered and Pakistan-Administered Kashmir–details human rights violations and abuses on both sides of the Line of Control, and highlights a situation of chronic impunity for violations committed by security forces,” says the report.The report asks both sides to adhere to the ceasefire agreement, and asks India to repeal AFSPA and release political prisoners, among others.It also recommends, “Fully respect the right of self-determination of the people of Kashmir as protected under international law.”In response to a question on the Report, the official spokesperson said: “India rejects the report. It is fallacious, tendentious and motivated. We question the intent in bringing out such a report. It is a selective compilation of largely unverified information. It is overtly prejudiced and seeks to build a false narrative.“The report violates India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. The entire state of Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India. Pakistan is in illegal and forcible occupation of a part of the Indian state through aggression. We have repeatedly called upon Pakistan to vacate the occupied territories. The incorrect description of Indian territory in the report is mischievous, misleading and unacceptable. There are no entities such as ‘Azad Jammu and Kashmir’ and ‘Gilgit-Baltistan’.“Terrorism is the most egregious violation of human rights. Yet the authors have conveniently ignored the pattern of cross-border terrorism emanating from Pakistan and territories under its illegal control. Cross-border terror and incitement is aimed at suppressing the will of the people of Jammu and Kashmir, disrupting its political and social fabric and undermining India’s integrity.“It is disturbing that those behind this report have chosen to describe internationally designated and UN-proscribed terrorist entities as “armed groups” and terrorists as “leaders”. This undermines the UN-led consensus on zero tolerance to terrorism.“The motivated report deliberately ignores that fundamental rights and freedoms guaranteed under the Constitution to every Indian citizen, including in the state of Jammu & Kashmir, are protected also by an independent judiciary, human rights commissions, free and vibrant media and an active civil society.“Our protest and views in the matter have been conveyed unequivocally to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. We are deeply concerned that individual prejudices are being allowed to undermine the credibility of a UN institution.“Such malicious reports cannot undermine the will of the people and the Government of India to take all measures necessary to protect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country from cross-border terrorism.”