Monthly Archives: August 2018

The construction of Likaru-Mig La-Fukche road in south-eastern Ladakh is expected to take about 3 years, say BRO sources

Vijay Mohan

Chandigarh, September 25

The Border Roads Organisation (BRO), tasked with building and maintaining road networks along the frontiers, has set about breaking its own record of building the world’s highest motorable road in Ladakh, which is of immense strategic importance.

On August 15, it began construction of the Likaru-Mig La-Fukche road in south-eastern Ladakh, which touching at altitude of 19,400 feet will be higher than the Chishumle-Demchok road over the 19.024-foot-high Umling La.

“The works are being executed by BRO’s Project Himank based at Leh and the Border Roads Task Force responsible for the construction is headed by a woman officer, Col Ponung Doming,” Lt Gen Rajeev Chaudhary, Director-General Border Roads, said during a visit to Chandigarh.

A civil engineer, she belongs to Arunachal Pradesh and was commissioned into the Corps of Engineers in 2008. She also served with the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Congo during 2014. The task force she is presently commanding also has several other women officers on its strength.

BRO sources said that the construction of the road is expected to take about three years, for which a budget of about Rs 520 crore has been earmarked. The area receives heavy snowfall with temperatures dipping to minus 10-20 degrees Celsius in summers and up to minus 40 degrees in winters.

“The terrain there is very tough and the work is very challenging,” Brig Gaurav Karki, Chief Engineer, Project Himank, said. Limited working season due to heavy snow, low temperature, vagaries of the weather, tough driving conditions and long travel hours are constraints faced by the BRO in high-altitude areas.

Raised in 1985, Project Himank’s jurisdiction covers eastern Ladakh and it has constructed some of world’s highest motorable roads across the Khardung La, Tanglang La and Chang La passes.

Umling la, which at present holds the Guinness World Record for the highest motorable pass in the world, was opened by Himank two years ago. A coffee mug with a picture of the certificate imprinted on it is available for sale as a souvenir at a café run by the BRO at the pass. Visitors can also get a signed certificate from BRO mentioning their visit to the pass.

The 64-km-long Likaru-Mig La-Fukche road will link up with the existing Chushul–Dungti–Fukche-Demchok road that runs almost parallel to the Line of Actual Control (LAC), and will reduce the time to reach the LAC in the Demchok Sector, which witnesses a lot of Chinese activity.

The IAF maintains an advance-landing ground (ALG) at Fukche, just about 3 km away from the LAC, which is capable of handling tactical transport aircraft. ALGs are temporary airfields having an unpaved airstrip with little or no support infrastructure and navigation facilities.

Another ALG exists at Nyoma, about 45 km to the north-west as the crow flies, which in about two years’ time will be upgraded by the BRO to a full-fledged airbase. Once complete, it will be the world’s highest fighter aircraft base.

According to experts, the Indus River enters India from Tibet at Demchok in south-eastern Ladakh and defines the border. It flows between the Kailash range and Ladakh range for 75 km before turning west at Dungti, which is about 55 km south of Chushul.

A track runs along the Indus from Dunfti to Kyol in the south, which is connected to the Nyoma–Hanle–Nerbole –Chumar road, which at present was the only road axis leading to Demchok. The new road will provide an additional route connecting the Chumar and Hanle region to the Indus Valley, allowing better access to these areas.

The military significance apart, the new road would also have socio-economic spin-offs for the civilian populace of the region, providing them easier access to the mainstream and giving a fillip to development.

While Mig La would emerge as the highest motorable pass in the world, there are other passes in the Himalayas at higher elevations, but are either just trekking routes or located in inaccessible and uninhabited areas.

The Kalindi Pass in Uttarakhand, for example, is at an altitude of 19,521 feet and connects Gangotri with Ghastoli in the Garhwal Himalaya. It is well known among adventure enthusiasts.

Curbing violence and creating a level playing field through the imposition of the President’s rule are prerequisites for a political solution.

Threat: Polarisation has reached a critical level in Manipur, sparking fears of a revival of insurgency. ANI

Maj Gen Ashok K Mehta (retd)

Military Commentator

The euphoria in India over the success of the G20 summit has led to a strategic neglect of conflict-ridden Manipur. The fallout in the North-East has been exacerbated by gross inaction on the part of the Centre and the state government. The 28-month-old civil war in Myanmar has partly fanned the Manipur flames, resulting in over 200 people being killed, thousands displaced and 4,000 weapons stolen, besides an influx of refugees from Myanmar. Ethnic cleansing has partitioned Manipur — a Kuki-free Imphal valley and Kuki-inhabited hill areas devoid of Meiteis. The acute polarisation has sparked fears of a revival of insurgency, given the access to weapons, mostly taken from state armouries.

Lt Gen PC Nair, Director General, Assam Rifles, said last month: “The situation is unprecedented… we have never faced a situation like this.” This happened after Union Home Minister Amit Shah, on March 25, withdrew the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) from 16 out of 39 police stations in four districts of Imphal to demonstrate normalcy, a move that has not been reversed.

Former Chief of Army Staff Gen MM Naravane said: “Insurgency has drastically reduced — almost nil,” allowing for a rebalancing of the Army towards the north and the transfer of operational responsibility in the North-East to the Assam Rifles, a departure from the norm, except during the wars of 1965 and 1971.

The civil war in Myanmar between the military junta and the forces opposed to it — the National Unity Government (NUG) and the Resistance — is in its third year. The main theatre of fighting is the Sagaing region and Chin state, close to Nagaland, Mizoram and Manipur. As the junta has lost control of these areas, it is resorting to aerial bombing, including the use of napalm and looting and burning of villages. This has resulted in nearly 60,000 Chin, Kuki and Zomi refugees fleeing to Mizoram and Manipur, some of whom are NUG legislators. Because of the porous 1,600-km-long border with Myanmar and the free movement regime of 16 km on either side, arms, narcotics, gold and precious stones are being smuggled into Manipur.

Remember the Golden Triangle? Drug trafficking is nothing new for Manipur and even security personnel are allegedly involved in it. In February 2013, a Colonel was arrested with drugs worth Rs 6 crore. Details of the intricate drug trade network in Manipur were covered in an article published in the Goa Chronicle on September 15. It is an eye-opener. A UN report states that since 2021, there has been a 33 per cent increase in poppy cultivation in Manipur. Meiteis allege that this is a cash crop for the Kukis. But according to the Goa Chronicle, every community has a stake, including the Muslim Pangals.

The Myanmar conflict has seriously hampered India’s Act East Policy, which is designed to advance trade and interaction with ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations). Earlier this month, Foreign Minister S Jaishankar told the media, “India’s most ambitious infrastructure projects are with Southeast Asia, but they are facing big challenges because of a breakdown in Myanmar’s internal security system.” The nearly two-decade-old multimodal Kaladan project, which transits through insurgency-infected Rakhine state en route to Mizoram, has been periodically blocked by the Arakan Army. The India-Myanmar-Thailand trilateral highway project connecting Moreh in Manipur with Mae Sot in Thailand has been held up due to fighting in the Sagaing region. Jaishankar met Myanmar Foreign Minister Than Swe at the ASEAN foreign ministers’ meeting this month and told him about the perilous effects of the fighting and airstrikes close to the India-Myanmar border.

The People’s Defence Forces (PDF) of the NUG are heavily invested in the Sagaing region and dominate it. With the civil war stalemated and the prospects of conflict resolution bleak in view of a divided ASEAN, Delhi should review its policy of putting ‘all eggs in the junta basket’. Indian agencies should cultivate Chin National Front and Arakan Army to facilitate the construction of its infrastructure projects. Further, reviving contact with the democratic forces and establishing communication channels with the NUG/PDF, including the supply of weapons, are viable options.

But it is Manipur, the pivot to India’s Act East Policy, which requires immediate treatment, even if it is akin to shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted. The Central and state governments allowed Manipur to bleed, permitting the seeds of new insurgencies to be sown and putting the Army, Assam Rifles and other security forces in unsavoury predicaments that challenged their impartiality.

A CRPF security adviser guides CM Biren Singh, while the Army and central paramilitary forces have been requisitioned to assist the civil authorities in areas not covered by AFSPA. Two FIRs filed by the Manipur Police against the Assam Rifles, alleging bias for the Kukis, and the Meiteis’ demand for the removal of the Assam Rifles reflect the fragile ground reality, even as questions are being raised about the release of banned terrorist groups by the Army and the Assam Rifles.

Incidents involving the use of firearms are frequent, with casualties on both sides. A dysfunctional Unified Command, unlike the one in J&K, has failed to stamp out violence. Security forces have questioned the wisdom of the Centre in dividing areas of operational responsibility — allotting Imphal valley to Manipur Police and the hill area to the Assam Rifles.

Army’s 3 Corps, which has a dual role, has reverted to internal security duties in Manipur. The major task for the Army and the Assam Rifles is to recover looted weapons. Although weapon deposit boxes have been placed at various locations, the majority of the people tend to take selfies beside them. At seminars on Manipur and the North-East, commonly used words and phrases describing the situation are ‘anarchy’, ‘another Cambodia’ and ‘total mistrust between communities’. Surprisingly, like the PM, neither the Army Chief nor the Chief of Defence Staff has visited Manipur. Area experts say that the government has shown conspicuous lack of political will to nip a potential insurgency in the bud. The North-East is represented by 25 Lok Sabha MPs, mostly belonging to the BJP and its allies, including two from Manipur, which is the traditional tinderbox of insurgency in the region. Curbing violence and creating a level playing field through the imposition of the President’s rule are prerequisites for a political solution.

India has been carrying out a lot of construction activities at the China border in the last three years, Border Roads Or[1]ganisation (BRO) Direc[1]tor General Lt General Rajeev Chaudhry said on Sunday. The DG was in Chandi[1]garh to inspect the ongoing construction work of an air dispatch unit of the BRO, touted to be the world’s largest 3D concrete printed campus. Chaudhry said the government of India is fully supporting the BRO for carrying out infrastructure development projects by way of increasing the bud[1]get and new technology. The government of India has “increased our budget by 100 per cent in the last two years”, he added. When asked if China is carrying out big infrastruc[1]ture development near the border areas of India, the DG said that a lot of con[1]struction activities have been being carried out by the BRO and other agen[1]cies at the China border in the last three years. The DG said that around 300 BRO projects worth Rs 8,000 crore were com[1]pleted during the last few years. “In the last three years, we set up 295 road projects, bridges, tunnels and airfields which were dedicated to the nation,” Chaudhry said. “In four months, our 60 more projects will be ready and the pace of our work has increased,” he added. The DG said that the BRO was using steel slag — a by-product of steel — and plastic in the con[1]struction of roads. “Today, the BRO’s pace of work is quite fast and the government has com[1]plete support in it, be it the budget, machines, new technology and simplifica[1]tion of procedures. You can be rest assured that we will leave China behind in the next four to five years,” he added.

Visiting NRI bizman says country seeing job crunch, high rentals

Tribune News Service

Deepkamal Kaur

Jalandhar, September 25

With Punjabis constituting 60 per cent of the Indians going to Canada on student visa, a prominent NRI businessman and philanthropist who hails from Patara village in Jalandhar has a word of advice: Do not send students to Canada till you can spare Rs 50 lakh as expenses for them for the next five years, besides paying the college fee and Guaranteed Investment Certificate (GIC) fee for the first year.

The rentals have gone up to 1,600 Canadian dollars a month. There are not as many jobs available as the number of students. — Sukhi Bath, resident of Surrey

Sukhi Bath, a resident of Surrey in British Columbia, says he has been closely monitoring the Punjabi students in Canada for long as he has been living there for the last 50 years. He said the students who got sufficient funds for their maintenance for the first five years many a time fell into the trap of earning money through illegal means.

“The rents have gone up to 1,600 Canadian dollars a month. Five to six students are being adjusted in one room because of space crunch. There are not as many jobs available as the number of students. The employers too are exploiting them, paying them less for the hours put in. The students are getting stressed, with some taking to drugs and even losing their lives. It is so painful to see such a scenario,” said Bath, who is currently in India. Running an automobile business in Canada, Bath said he knew some of these students as he was regularly meeting them through his NGO Punjab Bhawan, headquartered at Surrey.

“I have been running this NGO without any fund-raiser and regularly hold conferences for Punjabi students where they share their problems and grievances, and we try to address them. We help them contact those providing rental accommodation, jobs, and also help them apply for driving licences and float their resumes,” he said.

Bath said even as Rs 68,000 crore was being pumped out annually from Punjab to Canada, the Canadian government had not set up any toll-free helpline for these students.

“We have been raising this demand with the government there. The next conference of our NGO is scheduled for October 8-9 at Surrey, so I will be heading back after three days,” he said.

He said he had now also taken up the new task of guiding Punjabi students, who aspire to go to Canada. He lists out the areas of concern. “If you can hold on, try to postpone your plans for Canada. It is not the right time to go as there is an acute shortage of space and jobs. It is not advisable to go right after school as the kids are not groomed here to be independent at the age of 17. Children must first learn to be independent in India. They also need to start cooking on their own. If possible, they must take a short course or classes for such grooming.”

He refused to delve into the India-Canada tussle over Nijjar’s killing.

As per the Horizon 2047 document, India and France agreed to ‘explore more ambitious projects to develop the Indian submarine fleet and its performance’.

Boost: India has added maritime competence to its land and air-based capacity for delivering strategic weapons. PTI

Rahul Bedi

Senior Journalist

The prospects of France assisting India in developing and constructing six nuclear-powered general-purpose attack submarines or SSNs for the Indian Navy (IN) are believed to have brightened following a meeting between PM Narendra Modi and President Emmanuel Macron in New Delhi on the sidelines of the recently concluded G20 summit.

Discussions between the two leaders — who were meeting for the second time in two months following Modi’s July visit to Paris as the chief guest at France’s Bastille Day parade — were centred on the “joint development, manufacture and testing of advanced military platforms and technologies”, said officials in Delhi. French assistance for the IN’s continuingly deferred SSN programme has long been on the anvil, with hush-hush discussions over it at an advanced stage.

Earlier, the joint Horizon 2047 document agreed upon during Modi’s Paris visit to mark 25 years of the bilateral strategic partnership between Delhi and Paris referred to both sides agreeing to “explore more ambitious projects to develop the Indian submarine fleet and its performance”. Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited in Mumbai had already licence-built six Kalvari (Scorpene)-class conventional diesel-electric ‘killer-hunter’ submarines under transfer of technology from France’s Naval Group, and is poised to begin constructing three more to further boost collaboration in more advanced underwater platform production.

India had approached France for assistance with its then putative and floundering nuclear-powered missile submarine (SSBN) programme after Paris had robustly backed New Delhi’s 1998 ‘Shakti’ nuclear tests. And though this support, when India was globally isolated and under US-led sanctions, had led to the two inking the bilateral strategic partnership, France had declined to be involved in India’s SSBN programme as, at the time, such assistance contravened prevailing global nuclear protocols. This negation had left India no choice but to turn to Russia as a default option, but senior industry officials conceded that the impending SSN project in the overall transformed security environment presented Paris and Delhi yet another collaborative opportunity to be exploited productively.

SSNs are employed for sundry missions such as anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare, while SSBNs perform specialised strategic nuclear deterrence missions. The latter’s principal operational objectives are to safeguard a nuclear force’s second-strike capability by offering a safe and undetected location from where missiles can be launched when required.

Earlier this year, France reportedly offered to jointly develop SSNs with India, under the aegis of Delhi’s Atmanirbharta initiative designed to enhance self-sufficiency in materiel requirements, by transferring technology based on its Barracuda-class SSNs, the first of which — Suffren — was commissioned into the French Navy in mid-2022. Designed by the Naval Group, the 4.765-tonne and 99m-long Suffren was the first of the six SSNs scheduled to join France’s Marine Nationale by 2030 at an estimated cost of over $2 billion each.

France was eager to clinch this prospective SSN deal with India to compensate for Australia summarily scrapping in late 2021 the multi-million-dollar deal with the Naval Group to supply the Royal Australian Navy 12 conventional submarines, for which the latter paid $585 million as compensation. Instead, Australia entered into a $268-368-billion deal with the US and the UK for eight SSNs between now and around 2050 under the AUKUS strategic pact.

The IN, for its part, is keen on partnering the Naval Group for its SSN needs as the technology it offered is more advanced compared to that of Russia, the only P5 country amenable to such sensitive cooperation with India. Industry officials and analysts are of the view that French involvement in India’s SSN programme would, in all likelihood, be ‘endorsed’ by the US, whose strategic, defence and military technology ties with India are proliferating in a bid to challenge Chinese hegemony in the strategic Indian Ocean Region.

The IN’s SSN project, worth an estimated Rs 60,000 crore, was approved by the Ministry of Defence in early 2015, with the first of the 6,000-tonne boats scheduled for completion by 2032-33. These platforms comprised part of the Navy’s revised 30-year Project for the Series Construction of Submarines (till 2030) that envisaged the induction of 24 submarines, including six SSNs. These SSNs would supplement and operationally support the four or five 6,000-7,000-tonne Arihant-class SSBNs built with Russian knowhow and technical assistance, particularly with regard to miniaturising their 82.5MW pressurised light water reactors.

Meanwhile, India’s SSBN programme, undertaken jointly by the Defence Research and Development Organisation, the Department of Atomic Energy and the IN, is proceeding apace at the secretive Ship Building Centre (SCB) in Visakhapatnam. The third such platform — simply designated as S4 — was launched in late 2021 after INS Arighat, the second SSBN, was undergoing further fitment. These SSBNs comprise a vital component of India’s nuclear triad, aimed at sustaining its nuclear deterrence and no-first-use posture.

INS Arihant, the lead SSBN boat, was constructed at the SCB, drawing upon design elements of Soviet-era and Russian submarines from the Project 670A Skat-series (‘Charlie I’) and Project 667 (‘Delta I’) to the more recent Project 885 Yasen-class nuclear-powered cruise missile submarines (SSGNs). It was launched in July 2009; four years later, its on-board nuclear reactor attained criticality, enabling sea trials to begin in 2014 and weapon tests before its unannounced and low-key commissioning in August 2016. Two years later, Arihant completed its first deterrence patrol, confirming India’s three-tier retaliatory nuclear deterrent capability by adding maritime strike competence to its existing land and air-based capacity for delivering strategic weapons.

The IN, however, which acknowledged the SSBN programme’s existence only in December 2007, continues to claim that the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) had ‘exclusive’ management of the confidential programme. Funding for it was also confidential, supervised by the PMO via the National Security Adviser, it claimed. But having taken ownership of the SSN programme, it now behoves the Navy to imminently kickstart the project and stall the severe drawdown in its underwater assets.

Had struck HQ at Crimea’s Sevastopol port last week; Moscow mum

Kyiv, September 25

Ukraine’s special forces said on Monday that Admiral Viktor Sokolov, the commander of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, had been killed in a Ukrainian attack last week on the fleet headquarters in the Crimean port of Sevastopol.

The Russian Defence Ministry did not immediately respond when asked to confirm or deny that Sokolov had been killed in the attack on Crimea, which Russia seized and annexed in 2014. The Ukrainian military said Friday’s attack had targeted a meeting of the Russian navy’s leadership in the city of Sevastopol.

US-made Abrams tanks arrive in ukraine

• United States-made Abrams tanks have arrived in Ukraine and are being prepared to reinforce the latter’s brigades, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said.
• He did not say how many of tanks had arrived. European countries have already sent dozens of German-made Leopards and some British Challengers.

“After the strike on the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, 34 officers died, including the commander of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. Another 105 occupiers were wounded. The headquarters building cannot be restored,” the special forces said on the Telegram messaging app.

It was not immediately clear how Ukraine’s Special Forces counted the dead and wounded in the attack. Russian-installed officials confirmed the Ukrainian attack on Friday, saying that at least one missile struck the fleet headquarters. Kyiv has stepped up attacks in the Black Sea and Crimea as Ukrainian forces press on with a nearly four-month-old counteroffensive to take back Russian-occupied territory.

Meanwhile, Russian air strikes killed four people and caused significant damage to infrastructure at the Black Sea port of Odesa and to grain storage facilities, Ukrainian officials said.

Ukraine’s military said 19 Iranian-made Shahed drones and 11 cruise missiles were shot down overnight, most of them directed at Odesa region. 

‘34 officers killed’

According to Ukraine’s special forces, it struck Russia Black Sea Fleet’s headquarters in the Crimean port of Sevastopol that killed 34 officers and 105 others. — Reuters

Tells Bar bodies not to stop any lawyer from hearings

The Supreme Court on Monday ordered issuance of Aadhaar numbers to those who lost their 11-digit unique identification number during the ongoing ethnic violence in Manipur even as it emphasised the need for prior necessary verification to ensure that “illegal immigrants” didn’t get undue advantage of the exercise.
Tribune News Service

Satya Prakash

New Delhi, September 25

The Supreme Court on Monday ordered issuance of Aadhaar numbers to those who lost their 11-digit unique identification number during the ongoing ethnic violence in Manipur even as it emphasised the need for prior necessary verification to ensure that “illegal immigrants” didn’t get undue advantage of the exercise.

Accepting the suggestion made by Justice Gita Mittal-led three-member all-women panel, a Bench led by CJI DY Chandrachud ordered the UIDAI Deputy Director General, Guwahati and the Manipur Home Secretary to issue Aadhaar numbers to those who lost or misplaced their documents on account of displacement during the violence that has claimed at least 175 lives and left more than 70,000 people displaced.

The Bench, however, clarified that “Necessary verification shall be carried out before issuing Aadhaar cards.”

The directions came after senior advocate Vibha Datta Makhija, representing the panel, urged the top court to issue directions for re-issuance of Aadhaar numbers to those who lost their documents during the ongoing ethnic violence in Manipur.

The top court also directed the Bar Associations in Manipur not to prevent any lawyer, regardless of the community he/she belongs to, from appearing before courts. Any violation of the direction would amount to contempt of the court’s order, it said. “We are a people’s court and giving a hearing is part of the healing process,” the Bench said emphasising that no lawyer should be denied access to court proceedings in Manipur.

Brainstorm gaps in execution of operations

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 25

As the creation of joint theatre commands inches closer to reality, the Indian armed forces for the first time discussed among themselves the probability of united operations. The forces also reviewed “joint doctrines”, needed to execute military operations unitedly.

The review of the “joint doctrines” was aimed at understanding the gaps, if any, in the planning and execution of operations. The future wars are expected to be fought in the domains of space and cyberspace. Long-range missiles aided by pin-point surveillance are likely to be used.

The review conference spanned over two sessions: Brainstorming the joint doctrine formulation process and reviewing the ongoing as well as future joint doctrines on diverse subjects, including cyberspace, amphibious warfare and space wars. “The conference was successful and achieved its aim,” the Ministry of Defence today said, adding the review was done on Saturday.

Subject matter experts from separate doctrine development agencies of tri-services, Integrated Defence Staff (IDS) and the three services (Army, IAF and Navy) along with members from reputed think-tanks were present at the conference. The ‘Joint Doctrine Review Conference-2023’ was conducted at the Manekshaw Centre in Delhi Cantonment and was chaired by Air Marshal Jeetendra Mishra, the Deputy Chief of the IDS.

The review was aimed at synergising and bridging the gaps in understanding between IDS and three services in formulation of doctrines, as also reviewing the progress of existing doctrines. It also helped in sharing best practices and ongoing initiatives on creating a joint doctrine to execute military plans with all three participating services.

He was the highest official to be dismissed for alleged lapses that led to the Kargil intrusion in 1999. And now Brigadier Surinder Singh’s efforts to prove his innocence have been dealt a huge blow. The Army says it has burnt the documents that could’ve helped him restore his honour.