Majid Jahangir

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, October 25

The J&K High court has transferred the hearing of the quashing petition of the FIR against a serving Lieutenant Colonel of the Army in a case wherein the officer is accused of molesting a non-local woman inside an Army garrison in Kashmir last year.

Lt-Col Manohar Nagaraj had moved two transfer petitions before the Srinagar wing of the High Court — one for the transfer of hearing of the quashing petitions of FIR and one for the transfer of trial currently pending before the Judicial Magistrate, First Class, Ganderbal.

In his pleas to the court through his counsel, Lt-Col Nagaraj said the case was related to a period when he was posted in the Manasbal garrison and he has been now posted out of Kashmir and the case be shifted to the Jammu wing due to security apprehensions.

The petitioner expressed security apprehensions as an Army personnel and travelling to Srinagar for the purpose of hearing in the present petitions.

The petition was opposed by the victim’s counsel who submitted that there was no legal requirement for the petitioner to appear and attend the case on every date of hearing.

After hearing the two parties, Chief Justice Gita Mittal observed that it couldn’t be disputed that there was no legal requirement for parties to remain present for hearings in their case if the parties were duly represented by the respective counsels.

“..However, if parties are desirous of attending the hearings in their cases, barriers for the same must be removed. The petitioner in the case has expressed such intention. …It is also noteworthy that other than this objection, the respondent No 2 ( the victim) does not dispute the submission made on behalf of petitioner regarding his safety apprehensions regarding travelling to Srinagar as serving Army officer,” the court observed.

The Chief Justice ordered transfer of the petition to the Jammu wing of the High Court.

“The petition currently pending before this wing shall stand transferred to the Jammu wing of this High Court,” the order read.

File photo of Army Chief Gen. Bipin Rawat. PTI

New Delhi, October 25

Army Chief Gen. Bipin Rawat on Friday described Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir as a “terrorist-controlled” part of the neighbouring country and sought to link it with Islamabad’s strident criticism of India’s decision to scrap Jammu and Kashmir’s special status.

Speaking at an event, Gen Rawat also asserted that Gilgit-Baltistan and PoK have been under illegal occupation of Pakistan.

The Army Chief cautioned Pakistan not to resort to any “misadventure” against India, saying the Indian armed forces were fully ready to effectively check any such attempts.

“The territory (PoK) occupied by Pakistan is not controlled by the Pakistan establishment but it is controlled by terrorists. PoK is actually a terrorist-controlled part of Pakistan,” he said.

In his closing remarks at the Field Marshal KM Cariappa memorial lecture, the Army Chief also said that attempts are being made by Pakistani terrorists to disrupt resumption of normalcy in Kashmir after India abrogated provisions of Article 370 to withdraw special status of Jammu and Kashmir.

“We all have been concerned about Jammu and Kashmir and what has been happening there. Jammu and Kashmir has always been part of our great nation,” he said.

Gen. Rawat said that after signing of the Instrument of Accession on October 26, 1947 by Maharaja Hari Singh, there were mainly three issues—and only defence, foreign policy and communications, were under control of the Indian government.

“The Article 1 of the Constitution and within it there is a Section that clearly mentions that Jammu and Kashmir is a part of India. And, when we say Jammu and Kashmir, it is the complete state of J&K which includes PoK and Gilgit-Baltistan,” he said.

“Therefore, PoK and Gilgit-Baltistan become an occupied territory, a territory which has been illegally occupied buy our western neighbour,” he said.

The Army Chief said Pakistan has upped the ante against India after abrogation of Article 370 as PoK is controlled by terrorists.

In his address, he referred to the genesis of Article 370 and said when it brought in there with its sub-paragraph, “it was temporary in nature”.

“When we introduced it with the word temporary in it, there was no objection from Pakistan on Article 370. It has been amended twice, where the leadership of Jammu and Kashmir was designated as Sadar-e-Riyasat and later prime minister and then chief minister,” he added.

The Army Chief also made reference to the recent killing of apple traders in the Valley.

“Attempts are being made by these terrorists to disrupt resumption of normalcy in Kashmir post the abrogation. We have been seeing killing of apple traders, drivers from outside of the state, preventing shops from getting opened, and threatening schoolchildren from attending schools,” he said.

“All this narrative is coming from Pakistan and terrorists,” he added.

Rawat said the despite the disruptions, Indian forces with the government approach will achieve its mission of peace and development.

“We will succeed, it may take time, but there is light at the end of the tunnel,” he said.

The Instrument of Accession is a legal document executed by Maharaja Hari Singh, ruler of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. PTI

PoK a terrorist-controlled part of Pakistan: Army chief

Vijay Mohan
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, October 23

In a major organisational restructuring, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force (ITBP) will have two new command level formations, one for the western sector based at Chandigarh and the other for the eastern sector based at Guwahati.

The decision, along with accretion of new posts at the top level as part of the cadre review, was approved by the Union Cabinet on Wednesday.

Two new posts of Additional Director General (ADG), equivalent to a Lieutenant General in the Army, have been sanctioned to head the new commands.

A total of 60 new posts in Group-A Executive General Duty Cadre and two posts in Group-A Non-General Duty Cadre at various levels from Assistant Commandant to ADG for enhancing the supervisory staff have been approved.

According to sources, Western Command will control the Dehradun-based Northern Frontier comprising of Shimla, Dehradun and Bareilly sectors and the North-West Frontier, recently moved from Chandigarh to Leh that comprises Srinagar and Ladakh sectors.

Western Command is expected to have 25 battalions while Eastern Command will have 19 battalions.

The ADG posted at Force Headquarters, Delhi, will have 12 battalions and four specialist battalions under his command.

At present, the force is divided into five frontiers that report directly to the Force Headquarters, along with other training, logistic and administrative establishments, through an additional director general based in Delhi.

The ITBP has a total strength of 56 service battalions and four specialist battalions, out of which 32 are deployed in border guarding duties, 11 in internal security and eight in anti-naxal operations.

The cadre review calls for increasing the existing structure of Group-A posts from 1,147 to 1,207 posts. Besides the new posts of ADG, it includes 10 new posts each at the level of Inspector General (IG) and Deputy Inspector General (DIG), 13 posts of Commandant, 16 posts of Second-in-Command, nine of Deputy Commandant and two posts of Inspector General in the non-general duty cadre.

The first cadre review of the force was held in 1988 when its strength was increased to 27,298. The second cadre review was held in 2001 and the strength was increased to 32,386. The present strength of the force is 89,429.

Presently, the ITBP has one sanctioned post of Director General (DG), who is the head of the force and one post of ADG at Force HQs in New Delhi.

There are 10 posts of Inspector General. The post of DG and ADG is filled by officers of the Indian Police Service (IPS) on deputation. At the rank of IG, 50 per cent posts are filled by IPS officers whereas at the rank of DIG 80 per cent posts are filled by promotion of ITBP cadre officers.

LADY DEPUTY COMMANDANT SEXUAL HARASSMENT IN ITBP BY CONSTABLE:NO ACTION TILL DATE BY AUTHORITIES

jay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 21

In what may change the military dynamics in north-eastern Ladakh, specifically Depsang Plains, a major bridge allowing movement of tanks was opened today.

A ‘class 70’ bridge, which can withstand up to 70 tonne weight, was inaugurated across the Shyok river by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. “Border area development is an integral part of our government’s plan and this bridge is a part of that strategy,” said Singh.

The ‘Colonel Chewang Rinchen Setu’, built by the Border Roads Organisation, connects Durbuk and Daulat Beg Oldie (DBO), a 16,000-foot-high plateau 20 km short of the 18,726-foot-high Karakoram Pass that divides Ladakh and Xinjiang of China.

Over the past few years, India has added tanks to the long-stationed mechanised columns in eastern Ladakh, but due to lack of proper bridging, tanks had not moved to north-eastern Ladakh.

Army chief Rawat says 6-10 Pak soldiers killed in retaliatory firing

The video grab of a target destroyed in Indian Army firing in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in Neelam Valley on Sunday. PTI

New Delhi, DHNS

Sandeep Dikshit

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 18

Pakistan today managed to ward off relegation to a global blacklist for its continued inability to combat money-laundering and terror-financing. Though the anti-terrorist financing watchdog, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), retained it on the grey list, along with 11 more countries, its misdemeanours were grave enough to merit a four-month grace period that will end in February next year. The FATF plenary in Paris gave Pakistan time till February to implement all action points to check money-laundering and terror-financing though it acknowledged that there had been some signs of visible progress to reduce terror-financing risks.

Among other jurisdictions with strategic deficiencies on the grey list were Sri Lanka, Mongolia, Iceland, Ghana, Syria, Yemen and Zimbabwe.

Sri Lanka, Ethiopia and Tunisia were excluded from the group that required monitoring in which Pakistan’s indictment was the most severe. A compliance report submitted to the FATF just before the plenary had ended any eventuality of Pakistan returning to the financial mainstream. But there was great interest whether India would manage to push it on the blacklist that currently has Iran and North Korea.

Pakistan PM Imran Khan had recently accused India of conspiring to trap his country at a time when he was trying to build bridges with PM Narendra Modi. National Security Adviser Ajit Doval had on Tuesday said the biggest pressure on Pakistan to check terror-financing was due to the proceedings at the FATF.

Recent changes had meant that Pakistan had a more favourable playing field at the FATF plenary this year. China had become chairman and close friend Saudi Arabia recently joined the body. India’s spat with Malaysia and Turkey over Kashmir had made it a foregone conclusion that they would be among the minimum of three countries required at the FATF to block

an adverse outcome

for Pakistan.

“The FATF strongly urges Pakistan to swiftly complete its full action plan by February 2020. Otherwise, should significant and sustainable progress not be made across the full range of its action plan by the next plenary, the FATF will take action,’’  read a statement.

“Since June 2018, when Pakistan made a high-level political commitment to work with the FATF and the Asia-Pacific Group (APG) to strengthen its anti-money laundering and counter terror-financing regime…, Pakistan has made progress…,” it added.

It Was on expected lines

India’s spat with Malaysia and Turkey over Kashmir had made it a foregone conclusion that they would be among the minimum of three countries required at FATF to block an adverse outcome for Pakistan

Tribune News Service

Dera Baba Nanak, October 16

Dismissing apprehensions over scheduled completion of work on the Indian side of the Kartarpur corridor, the government today said an online registration portal for pilgrims would become functional from next Monday.

Talking to a media team from Delhi at zero line on the International Border (IB), Additional Secretary in the MHA and chairman of Land Port Authority of India (LPAI) Govind Mohan said, “I want to say that we will prove wrong all those who doubted us on meeting the work completion deadline. I am absolutely confident that the entire project, including the road construction and passenger terminal building work, will be completed as per schedule on October 31.”

Claiming that subject to the final agreement between India and Pakistan on operationalising the corridor, Mohan said the LPAI, which will eventually manage the facilities at the port, “will launch an online registration portal on October 20”.

On how pilgrims will be allotted date and time to undertake pilgrimage, he said, “Yes we have a limit of 5,000 pilgrims per day. So, we will follow the Railways reservation system of first come, first served.”

No special treatment

Patiala: SGPC chief Gobind Singh Longowal on Wednesday said all VIPs, including PM Modi, would participate in Guru Nank’s 550th birth anniversary celebrations at Sultanpur Lodhi as ‘sangat’. “No one will be given special place on the stage,” he said. Claiming the stage would be set from November 1, he said government and SGPC were together in celebrating the event. TNS

Key point: Like the Soviet Union, Russia knows that aircraft carriers are force multipliers for the U.S. military

During the Cold War, the United States Navy maintained a large and robust carrier fleet. In 1984 it operated thirteen carriers, a mix of conventional and nuclear-powered ships with air wings upwards of 85 aircraft. The carrier of 1984 fielded a diverse air wing, including the F-14 Tomcat fleet interceptor, F/A-18 Hornet multirole fighter, A-6 Intruder bomber, A-7 Corsair attack aircraft, and a variety of anti-submarine and support planes.

One of the missions the Soviets feared the most was a multi-carrier surge into the Norwegian Sea, where they could threaten Soviet air and naval bases. From there carriers could stage air raids against military targets across the northwestern USSR, hampering the ability of Soviet forces to dominate the North Atlantic and beyond. Alternately they could attack Soviet ballistic missiles submarines operating in the so-called “bastion” in the Barents Sea. Soviet missile submarines, concentrated near the homeland for protection, would be hunted down and destroyed.

But perhaps the gravest threat from Moscow’s perspective were the nuclear weapons regularly stationed on U.S. carriers. The prospect of one or more enemy aircraft carriers operating off the coast of the USSR, constantly on the move and each with up to ten nuclear bombers on her flight deck was a serious concern to the Soviet leadership.

United Nations, October 31

Pakistan violated its obligations under the Vienna Convention in the arrest and detention of Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav, International Court of Justice (ICJ) President Judge Abduylqawi Yusuf told the UN General Assembly here.

Jadhav, 49, a retired Indian Navy officer, was sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on charges of “espionage and terrorism” after a closed trial in April 2017. India has maintained that Jadhav was kidnapped from Iran where he had business interests after retiring from the Navy.

Presenting the report of the International Court of Justice to the 193-member General Assembly on Wednesday, Yusuf said in its judgement of July 17 the principal judicial organ of the United Nations “found that Pakistan had violated its obligations under Article 36 of the Vienna Convention and that appropriate remedies were due in this case”. 

In a major victory for India, the ICJ had ruled that Pakistan must review the death sentence given to Jadhav. India had argued that consular access was being denied to its national in violation of the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.

The bench led by Yusuf had ordered an “effective review and reconsideration of the conviction and sentence of Kulbhushan Sudhir Jadhav.” 

Yusuf elaborated on several aspects of the Court’s ruling in Jadhav’s case while presenting his report to the General Assembly.

He said one of the issues that the Court had to examine was the question of whether the rights relating to consular access, set out in Article 36 of the Vienna Convention, were in any manner to be excluded in a situation where the individual concerned was suspected of carrying out acts of espionage.

“The Court noted in that regard that there is no provision in the Vienna Convention containing a reference to cases of espionage; nor does the Article concerning consular access, Article 36, exclude from its scope certain categories of persons, such as those suspected of espionage. Therefore, the Court concluded that Article 36 of the Vienna Convention was applicable in full to the case at hand,” he said.

The Court was also called upon to interpret the meaning of the expression “without delay” in the notification requirements of Article 36 of the Vienna Convention. The Court noted that in its case, the question of how to determine what was meant by the term “without delay” depended on the given circumstances of a case.

“Taking into account the particular circumstances of the Jadhav case, the Court noted that Pakistan’s making of the notification some three weeks after Jadhav’s arrest constituted a breach of its obligation to inform India’s consular post “without delay”, as required by the provisions of the Vienna Convention,” he noted.

He further said “another interesting legal question” that the Court had to address was whether a bilateral agreement on consular access concluded between the two Parties – India and Pakistan – in 2008 could be read as excluding the applicability of the Vienna Convention.

“The Court considered that this was not the case,” he said.

“More precisely, the Court noted that under the Vienna Convention, parties were able to conclude only bilateral agreements that confirm, supplement, extend or amplify the provisions of that instrument. Having examined the 2008 Agreement, the Court came to the conclusion that it could not be read as denying consular access in the case of an arrest, detention or sentence made on political or security grounds, and that it did not displace obligations under Article 36 of the Vienna Convention.”

Coming to the “crux” of the Court’s ruling, he said the Court considered the reparation and remedies to be granted, after it had found that the rights to consular access had been violated.

“In line with its earlier jurisprudence in other cases dealing with breaches of the Vienna Convention, the Court found that the appropriate remedy was effective review and reconsideration of the conviction and sentence of Mr Jadhav.”

Yusuf told the General Assembly that the Court moreover clarified what it considered to be the requirements of effective review and reconsideration.

It stressed that “Pakistan must ensure that full weight is given to the effect of the violation of the rights set forth in the Vienna Convention and guarantee that the violation and the possible prejudice caused by the violation are fully examined.”

“While the Court left the choice of means to provide effective review and reconsideration to Pakistan, it noted that effective review and reconsideration presupposes the existence of a procedure that is suitable for this purpose and observed that it is normally the judicial process that is suited to this task.” Yusuf said following its ruling, the Court received a communication dated August 1, 2019 from Pakistan confirming its commitment to implementing the July 17 judgment in full.

“In particular, Pakistan stated that Jadhav had been immediately informed of his rights under the Vienna Convention and that the consular post of the High Commission of India in Islamabad had been invited to visit him on August 2, 2019,” Yusuf said.

However, the meeting, which was scheduled on August 2, did not materialise amid differences between India and Pakistan on the terms of the consular access to Jadhav.

Jadhav was finally granted the consular access on September 2.

India had welcomed the verdict of the International Court of Justice, saying that the ruling of the court by a vote of 15-1 upheld India’s position in the case. — PTI