Monthly Archives: August 2018

‘With this reimposition, the movement of foreigners visiting Manipur will be closely monitored’, says a statement

The Union Ministry of Home Affairs has reimposed the Protected Area Permit in Manipur in view of security concerns arising out of influx from neighbouring countries, a state government statement said.

The statement issued late on Wednesday night said, “With this reimposition, the movement of foreigners visiting Manipur will be closely monitored, and they are required to obtain the necessary Protected Area Permit (PAP) in accordance with the Foreigners (Protected Areas) Order, 1958.

It said the Centre has reimposed the Protected Area Permit in Manipur, Nagaland and Mizoram.

The statement also said that the state government has taken notice of the warning issued by an organisation which asked Chief Minister N Biren Singh not to travel to Senapati district to attend a cultural programme by passing through Kangpokpi district by road.

It stated “Upon investigation, it has been found that no such organization (Kuki Zo Council) exists in Manipur. The origin and authenticity of this group are highly questionable.”

The government also advised the people “to exercise caution and not to pay heed to statements or claims from organisations of dubious origins, which have been surfacing recently with the apparent intention of creating confusion and unrest.”

It said that the state government is committed to maintaining peace and harmony in the state and advised citizens to remain vigilant and trust only credible sources of information.

Highlights engine oil leaks in basic trainer aircraft

Ajay Banerjee Tribune News Service

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India, in a report tabled in Parliament today, highlighted significant deficiencies in the training of Indian Air Force (IAF) pilots. The performance audit, covering 2016-2021, flagged outdated equipment and critical issues with the basic trainer aircraft, Pilatus PC-7 Mk-II, including engine oil leaks.

The report said the CAG team studied the operations of the Pilatus PC-7 Mk-II aircraft which is being used as a basic trainer aircraft to impart ‘Stage-1’ flying training to trainee pilots since May 2013.

According to the report, 16 of the 64 Pilatus PC-7 Mk-II aircraft (25 per cent) reported 38 engine oil leaks between 2013 and 2021. The IAF raised the issue with the manufacturer, and as of August 2023, the matter was stated to be under investigation.

Delays in the IAF’s aircraft modernisation plans have affected ‘Stage 2’ and ‘Stage 3’ pilot training for transport and helicopter streams.

Helicopter pilots are trained on legacy platforms with outdated avionics, necessitating additional conversion training for operational units like Mi-17 V5 helicopters. Transport pilot training still relies on older Dornier-228 aircraft lacking modern cockpits.

The CAG also noted limitations in training simulators. While Virtual Reality (VR) Simulators and Flying Training Devices (FTDs) provide procedural training, they lack physical movement to simulate the real flight experience.

Pilot shortages were another concern. In February 2015, the IAF assessed a shortage of 486 pilots. Between 2016 and 2021, an annual intake of 222 trainee pilots was planned, but actual recruitment fell short, increasing the shortage to 596 pilots, according to the report.

Encounter breaks out during a cordon-and-search operation in Kadder area of the district

Five terrorists were killed while two security forces personnel were injured in an encounter in South Kashmir’s Kulgam on Thursday morning, officials said.

Police sources said the encounter broke out during a cordon-and-search operation in the Kadder area of the district in the early hours of Thursday.

Police had inputs that four to five terrorists are believed to have been trapped in an orchard, a senior officer said.

“#Encounter has started in the Kadder area of #Kulgam district. Police and security forces are on the job. Further details shall follow,” Kashmir Police wrote on X.

“A joint operation was launched by security forces following specific intelligence inputs regarding presence of suspected terrorists there”, Srinagar-based Army’s Chinar Corps said.

“Suspicious activity was observed by vigilant troops and on being challenged, terrorists opened fire on the security forces, who retaliated,” it said.

Sadly the painting / picture of this historic victory has been removed from Army Chief’s Office Lounge. President of Indian Ex Servicemen League has explained the reasons in his letter dated 16 Dec 2024. This is how country is honouring over 3,000 dead and 12,000 injured men in uniform during 1971 War .

Erase all memories of Indira.Erase anything connected with her including Sam. That’s the reason why. Now we will only celebrate Namo.

Referring to the 1971 Liberation war of Bangladesh, Brigadier Mohan noted that after the Second World War it was the first victory of its kind where surrender of a nation took place.

A historical memory of painting at Defence Minister Manohar Parikkar’s office, at Defence Ministry, South Block. The picture shows one of the photographs in which Lt. Gen. A.A.K. Niazi of Pakistan Army (seated, centre) is signing the surrender documents in Dacca on December 16, 1971. | Photo Credit: Shanker Chakravarty

Veterans continue to question the removal of the iconic painting of 1971 India-Pakistan war from the Army chief’s lounge. In a tersely worded letter addressed to the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) and all three service chiefs, Brigadier Inder Mohan Singh (retired), President of the Indian Ex-Services League (IESL) of which the Defence Minister is the patron-in-chief, questioned as to why one would “bring religion” into the armed forces and dismantle “our edifice and remove our roots” referring to the Garuda and Lord Krishna’s chariot in the new painting.

“Pangong Tso with mountains in the background, some military equipment. What is the significance? We have lost our patrolling rights from Finger 4 to 8. I know this because I commanded the then neglected 114 Infantry Brigade from 2001 to 2003. Then, we have Chanakya. Do we go by what was taught by him about 2,400 years back? If his philosophies were so sound, India would not have broken into so many regions, kingdoms, principalities, etc. And weren’t the British wise they brought all of them into one geography and today the armed forces are a result of that success and not Chanakya,” Brigadier Mohan questioned in the letter.

WHAT ABOUT OTHER RELIGIONS PRAYER LIKE SIKHS,CHRISTANS,MUSLIMS.JAIN etc

Nirmal jit Singh Sekhon (July 17, 1943-December 14, 1971)

On December 14, 1971, the heroics of a young IAF fighter pilot, Flying Officer Nirmal Jit Singh Sekhon, set ablaze the skies over Srinagar, which led to him being decorated posthumously with the Param Vir Chakra. In the IAF’s 92-year history, he remains the sole recipient of the nation’s highest award for gallantry.

Sekhon, then 26, is remembered for his lone defence of the Srinagar airbase against a Pakistan air force raid during the Indo-Pakistan War of 1971, when he took on six enemy Sabre aircraft in aerial combat, shooting down two. Commissioned as a Pilot Officer in 1967, he was serving as a Gnat pilot with No.18 Squadron, the unit which now flies the indigenously built Tejas fight out of Naliya airbase, during the war.

On December 14, the Srinagar airfield was attacked by six Pakistani jets. As soon as the first aircraft attacked, Sekhon rolled for take-off as No.2 in a two-aircraft formation, with Flight Lieutenant BS Ghumman in lead, just as the first bombs hit the runway.

A law graduate from Panjab University, Colonel Sharma is posted in Patiala since April 2022 and has been instrumental in solving many critical legal cases for the 1 Armed Division, Patiala

Tribune News Service

At a military ceremony conducted at the Kharga Corps, Ambala, Lt Col Diwakar Sharma, posted at the Patiala Military Station, was awarded Army Commanders Commendation for meritorious service by the General Officer Commander in Chief Western Command, Lt Gen Manoj Kumar Katiyar.

A law graduate from Panjab University, Colonel Sharma is posted in Patiala since April 2022 and has been instrumental in solving many critical legal cases for the 1 Armed Division, Patiala. He played a pivotal role in the installation of a sensor-based driving evaluation system, which is only one of its kind in the Indian Army. It helps reduce the requirement of manpower for imparting training to the Army drivers. “All I did was perform my duty with the utmost devotion and sincerity,” says Col Sharma.

Special Representatives’ talks being held after a gap of 5 years

India, China Special Representatives for the border mechanism, National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, met here on Wednesday to discuss a range of issues, including management of peace and tranquillity along LAC and restoration of bilateral ties frozen for over four years due to the military standoff in eastern Ladakh.

Doval, who is heading the Indian delegation, arrived here on Tuesday to take part in the 23^rd round of the Special Representatives’ talks being held after a gap of five years. The last meeting was held in 2019 in Delhi.

The talks began at 10 am China time.

The two officials were expected to discuss a range of issues to rebuild the bilateral ties following the October 21 agreement of disengagement and patrolling in eastern Ladakh between the two countries.

On Tuesday, China expressed optimism about the talks saying that it is ready to work with India to implement the commitments based on the common understandings reached between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping during their meeting at Kazan in Russia on the sidelines of the BRICS summit on October 24.

China is prepared to settle differences with sincerity, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian told a media briefing here when asked about the Special Representatives (SR) talks.

China is ready to work with India to implement the important common understandings between the leaders of China and India, respect each other’s core interests and major concerns, strengthen mutual trust through dialogue and communication, properly settle differences with sincerity and good faith, and bring bilateral relations back to the track of stable and healthy development as soon as possible, he said.

The two SRs will discuss the management of peace and tranquillity in the border areas and explore a fair, reasonable, and mutually acceptable solution to the boundary question, as agreed upon during the meeting of the two leaders in Kazan, the External Affairs Ministry said on Monday.

After the Modi-Xi meeting, which was their first after five years, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart met on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Brazil followed by a meeting of the Working Mechanism for Consultation & Coordination on China-India Border Affairs (WMCC).

The military standoff along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh began in May 2020 and was followed by a deadly clash at the Galwan Valley in June of that year resulting in a severe strain in ties between the two neighbours.

Barring trade, relations between the two countries virtually came to a standstill.

The face-off effectively ended following the completion of the disengagement process from the last two friction points of Demchok and Depsang under an agreement finalised on October 21.

The SRs’ meeting is regarded as significant as it is the first structured engagement between the two countries to restore relations.

Constituted in 2003 to comprehensively address the vexed dispute of the India-China border spanning 3,488 km, the SRs mechanism over the years met 22 times.

While success eluded it in resolving the boundary dispute, officials on both sides regard it as a very promising, useful and handy tool in addressing the recurring tensions between the two countries.

This day God gave me my SECOND LIFE when I successfully completed my last operational task,during the 1971 War, of demolition of a DOUBLE DECKER RAIL CUM ROAD BRIDGE OF PAKISTAN AT DERA BABA NANAK OVER RAVI RIVER UNDER HEAVY SHELLING AND FIRING FROM THE ENEMY SIDE . We worked on the BRIDGE from 10:30 at night till 5 am next morning fully exposed to firing all night for six and a half hours. We had to crawl on the top of the bridge to place the explosives to avoid being hit by bullets from an enemy Machine Gun placed on FIXED LINE OVER THE BRIDGE.
By GOD’S GRACE we survived

MAJOR GEN MOHAN SINGH

Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Monday slammed the government for “belittling the memory” of the 1971 war heroes by shifting a famous photo that depicted the signing of documents after the surrender of the Pakistan army in Dhaka. The…

Tribune News Service

Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Monday slammed the government for “belittling the memory” of the 1971 war heroes by shifting a famous photo that depicted the signing of documents after the surrender of the Pakistan army in Dhaka.

The new painting that has replaced the war photo displays tanks and religious symbols. The war photo has been shifted from the office of the Army Chief in South Block to the Manekshaw Centre in Delhi Cantonment.

“The government should have at least shown some respect to the memory of war heroes like Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw, Lt Gen JS Aurora (seen in the iconic photo) and other officers of the armed forces before taking such a step,” Priyanka said.

The Wayanad MP said she wanted to raise the issue on Vijay Diwas during Zero Hour, but was not allowed to speak. Vijay Diwas marks India’s victory in the 1971 India-Pakistan war that led to the creation of Bangladesh.

She said, “I wanted to point out that when no nation was willing to help East Pakistan, it was only the then PM Indira Gandhi who came forward to help. It was under her leadership that Bangladesh was created on Vijay Diwas.”

Later in the Lok Sabha, Culture Minister Gajendra Shekhawat said the photo had been placed at “the most befitting place in the Manekshaw Centre”, and one should not politicise such issues. The photo was earlier installed in the meeting lounge at the office of the Indian Army Chief on the first floor of the South Block, the headquarters of the Ministry of Defence.

Last week, its replacement with a painting had caused a furore among veterans with several questioning the need to remove the photo. On December 16, 1971, Pakistan army’s AAK Niazi signed the instrument of surrender in Dhaka after the 13-day India-Pakistan war. This resulted in the surrender of over 93,000 soldiers and the Pakistan army’s capitulation against Indian forces was complete. Priyanka Gandhi said, “Today, when people of the Hindu and other minority communities are being harassed in Bangladesh, the government should raise its voice against the atrocities and hold talks with them.”