A security man with a pellet gun stands guard during curfew in Srinagar. PTI file photo

Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 27

The Supreme Court today asked the Centre to look for an alternative to pellet guns in Jammu and Kashmir where hundreds of youngsters have suffered serious injuries during various protests since the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Burhan Wani in July last year.A three-Judge Bench headed by Chief Justice JS Khehar, however, agreed with Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi’s submission that the nature of weapons used by the forces could not be judicially determined.It said the alternative weapon and strategy for its use could be tested at four or five places where protests were frequently held.The Attorney General, who submitted a sealed cover report to the court, said the interim report prepared in October last was still being examined by security experts. The court asked him to come up with further suggestions in four weeks. Expressing concern over the death of youngsters, the court told Rohatgi, “Go by our spirit.” The suggestion came during a hearing on a petition by the Jammu and Kashmir Bar Association (Kashmir) against an order of the state High Court, refusing to ban the use of pellet guns.Senior counsel Zafar Shah told the Bench that many a young boy had lost an eye. Fifty persons had died and 300 had been partially or totally blinded. Pointing out that “4,000 more pellet guns have been imported,” Shah said pellet guns were not being used in any other state, save Kashmir. “It wasn’t used in Haryana where so much violence and damage to property took place,” he said.Shah suggested that instead of targeting the crowd by pellet guns, rifles could be used against selected protesters resorting to violence. “Are you saying that the security forces should use actual guns,” the Bench asked. As Shah answered in the affirmative, the Attorney General disapproved of the use of actual guns.Rohatgi said it was difficult to distinguish between young and adult protesters. “It is not a simple protest… There are anti-national protests…Protesters are often used as shield by militants to attack security forces. I am not justifying the casualties. But that’s the situation there,” he said.Rohatgi drew the court’s attention to the 1,522 attacks on the CRPF between July 8, the day Wani was killed, and August 11, 2016. On behalf of Jammu and Kashmir, Advocate General Jahangir Iqbal Gabi said pellet guns were being used as the last resort to contain mob violence, pointing out that between July 8 and August 11 last year, 3,777 policemen had been injured and two had died in mob violence. At one point the Bench suggested that parents of the boys indulging in violence be acted against.“Why don’t you take action against the parents of these children,” the Bench asked. But the Attorney General said, “If we start acting against parents, it will create an upheaval.” He said a 17 or 18-year-old boy was not under the “complete control of his parents”.

What court said

• A three-Judge Bench headed by Chief Justice JS Khehar agreed with Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi’s submission that the nature of weapons used by the forces could not be judicially determined
• It said the alternative weapon and strategy for its use could be tested at four or five places where protests were frequently held

An Indian army soldier patrols near the Line of Control in Poonch district after a ceasefire violation by Pakistan on Monday. PTI

Jammu/New Delhi, May 1The Indian Army-BSF patrol, whose two members were beheaded by Pakistani special forces on Monday, might just have walked into a death trap laid by the enemy, official sources said.The incident in Krishna Ghati sector along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir occurred when a joint team of the army and BSF had gone to check the veracity of an intelligence report that landmines had been planted by Pakistani troops on the Indian side.

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As they were looking for landmines, the patrol was taken by surprise by Pakistan’s Border Action Team (BAT) which had laid an ambush over 250 metre deep inside the Indian territory.While the Pakistani troops attacked two forward posts with rockets and mortar bombs, the BAT personnel lay in wait for their targets. The Indian army patrol, too, came under fusillade of gunfire, resulting in the death of two soldiers.The BAT personnel quickly moved in and beheaded two fallen soldiers, official sources said in New Delhi.It was still not known if landmines had indeed been planted in the area.K K Sharma, the Director General of BSF, one of whose personnel was killed in the attack and decapitated, met Union home secretary Rajiv Mehrishi and briefed him on the incident.”It was a pre-planned operation by Pakistan army. They had pushed in the Border Action Team over 250 metre deep inside Indian territory and set up the ambush for a long period to carry out the attack,” a senior officer said in Jammu.”Their target was a patrol party of 7-8 members, which had come out of a post,” the officer said, adding that as the posts were engaged, the patrol team members ran for cover.Two troopers — one of the army and another of BSF — were targeted by the BAT.Head Constable Prem Sagar of 200th Battalion of the BSF and Naib Subedar Paramjeet Singh of 22 Sikh Regiment of the army were killed and their bodies mutilated.The BAT is specifically employed for trans-LoC action.In Pakistan, the SSG (special services group) forms the core of BAT. Its primary task is to dominate the LoC by carrying out disruptive actions in the form of surreptitious raids.BAT attacks in the pastThere have been several BAT attacks in the past in which jawans have been beheaded or their bodies mutilated.On October 28, 2016, militants attacked a post and killed an Indian army soldier and mutilated his body close to the Line of Control (LoC) in the Machil sector.In January 2013, Lance Naik Hemraj was killed and his body mutilated by BAT. It also beheaded Lance Naik Sudhakar Singh. Constable Rajinder Singh of the BSF suffered injuries in the attack.In June 2008, a soldier of the 2/8 Gorkha Rifles lost his way and was captured by BAT in Kel sector. His body was found beheaded after a few days.During the 1999 Kargil conflict, Captain Saurabh Kalia was tortured by his Pakistani captors who later handed over his mutilated body to India. In February, 2000, terrorist Ilyas Kashmiri had led a raid on the Indian army’s ‘Ashok Listening Post’ in the Nowshera sector and killed seven Indian soldiers.Even then, Kashmiri had taken back to Pakistan the head of a 24-year-old Indian jawan Bhausaheb Maruti Talekar of the 17 Maratha Light Infantry. — PTI

Vikramdeep Johal

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 27

Private Sarn Singh’s name won’t ring a bell in India, but he is being remembered with reverence in Australia. This year marks the death centenary of the soldier who was killed in the Battle of Messines in West Flanders, Belgium, during World War I.Part of the 43rd Australian Infantry Battalion, Sarn Singh was originally a farmer hailing from Chhokran village in Phillaur subdivision of Jalandhar district.Son of zaildar Kishan Singh, he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in Adelaide in May 1916. Three months later, this pint-sized Punjabi—described as “63.25 inches tall, 136 pounds in weight, chest 34 to 36 inches”—was sent to the UK. Fighting in one of the bloodiest battlefields of WWI, he lost his life on June 10, 1917. He was posthumously awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Medal, which were given to his widow, Partap Kaur, in 1922.“The Australian Sikh Heritage Association (ASHA), along with local South Australian Sikhs and the wider Australian community, is organising a special commemorative event in Adelaide on June 10 to remember Private Sarn Singh’s ultimate sacrifice,” says a statement issued by ASHA, whose team includes Harjit Singh, Kuljit Kaur Jassal and Tarunpreet Singh.Earlier this month, the association had commemorated the 75th death anniversary of Manmohan Singh, a Flying Officer of the British Indian Air Force who died in Broome, Western Australia, during World War II. Rawalpindi-born Manmohan, regarded as one of the first Sikh aviators, had served as the chief pilot for Maharaja Bhupinder Singh, the then ruler of the Patiala princely state.When WWII broke out, he was picked as the leader of an Air Force batch of pilots sent to England for training and active duty. As the oldest of the group, he was fondly called chacha (uncle). Manmohan was known to have a cold shower every morning and not eat anything until he had recited the Japji Sahib. He was killed in a Japanese air attack on the Broome harbour on March 3, 1942.The pilot has been immortalised on the ‘Memorial Wall to the Allied Dead of World War II in Northern Australia’ in Darwin, while Private Sarn Singh’s name is inscribed on the war memorials in Adelaide and Canberra and the Menin Gate in Ypres (Belgium).

Kulbhushan Jadhav. File photo

Islamabad, April 27

Pakistan on Thursday stuck to its stand on Kulbhushan Jadhav’s sentencing, saying the military court’s ruling was based on specific evidence and the trial was conducted in a “transparent” manner.Pakistan’s assertion came a day after India handed over an appeal by the mother of retired Indian Navy officer Jadhav, sentenced to death by the Field General Court Martial, to the appellate court, initiating a process to get his conviction overturned.Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson Nafees Zakaria claimed that Jadhav has been tried for espionage according to the law of the land in a “transparent manner”.Jadhav’s sentencing was based on specific evidence as well as his “confessional statement” that also led to the dismantling of the terror network in the country, Zakaria was quoted as saying by Radio Pakistan.Zakaria’s remarks at a briefing came a day after the appeal on behalf of Jadhav was given to Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua by Indian High Commissioner Gautam Bambawale, who also handed over a petition by Jadhav’s mother seeking the Pakistan government’s intervention for his release and expressing the desire to meet him.Jadhav was given death sentence earlier this month, evoking a sharp reaction in India which warned Pakistan of consequences and damage to bilateral ties if the “pre- meditated murder” was carried out. — PTI

Srinagar, March 25

Northern Command chief Lt Gen Devraj Anbu today reviewed the overall security situation in the Kashmir valley and visited formations along the Line of Control (LoC).Accompanied by Chinar Corps Commander Lt Gen JS Sandhu, Lt General Anbu visited LoC formations and units, where he was briefed by commanders on the ground about the operational and logistic preparedness, a defence spokesman said here.“Commending the alertness and high morale of all troops deployed along the Line of Control, Lt General Anbu stressed maintaining sustained vigil and thwarting any attempts of infiltration from across,” the spokesman added.He said the Northern Command chief also took stock of the situation in the hinterland.“The Northern Command chief impressed upon everyone to continue targeting terrorist groups while safeguarding the interests of the people in close coordination with all security agencies and the civil administration,” the spokesman said. — PTI

HERE are reports of gangster shootouts every other week in Punjab. It has been a baptism by fire for the Congress government on the law and order front, and it cannot be said that it has met the challenge with the gumption required. Putting a stop to drugs within a month was another promise to which the government is being held by the Opposition. To be fair, the Punjab Police have had some successes with the arrest of a few notorious gangsters and jail escapees. But when the crooks brazenly carry out executions, it does no good to public confidence. The arrests in the drug trade have been unimpressive. It defies reason that only petty street peddlers and some of the constabulary were involved, but they are the only ones the police seem to be going after.Another, and perhaps even more worrisome, aspect is the spectre of Congress workers or known supporters being involved in attacks on SAD and BJP leaders and associates. A few have been murdered too. Most of the violence has been in attempts to take over control of truck unions or of village-level politics from the ousted ruling alliance. But it is indicative of the confidence Congress leaders have felt in taking the law in their hands. Some MLAs have even gone to the extent of directly threatening the police against harming their interests. It may well be said the present state of law and order is a legacy the government has received from the SAD-BJP dispensation. But it must ponder what calculations and interests produced that situation. The Congress in its euphoria over a sweeping majority runs a serious risk of going down the same path.Capt Amarinder Singh has made much of his ability to take bold decisions in the interest of the state. He would establish his credentials if he could ensure the police are able to reach the root of every tentacle of lawlessness. If that means making an example of certain fat but bad apples in his own party, the police or the bureaucracy, so be it.

Dialogue of the deaf

NITI Aayog crowd lacked focus

Sunday’s meeting of chief ministers arranged by NITI Aayog saw diverse ideas thrown around with an option to pick and choose. The BJP chief ministers read out their report cards expecting a pat or a word of approval from the Prime Minister. Their mind, however, was elsewhere. Most of them tweeted about “Antyodaya”, meaning “the rise of the last person”, because of its association with Deendayal Upadhyay, who was the subject of a four-day ongoing RSS seminar in the national capital. Prime Minister Modi was on a different planet where having simultaneous assembly and Lok Sabha elections and a shift to a new January-December fiscal year occupied his attention. In-between he praised states for sinking their differences over GST without listening, or responding, to the CMs beseeching him to make good in time their revenue losses on account of the GST rollout. Apparently on being prodded by the Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister, Narendra Modi also remembered to make an appeal to the CMs to protect Kashmiris living in their states. The BJP-PDP coalition has been going through a rough patch of late and Mehbooba Mufti had to be pacified even if the platform was a little inappropriate. The PM also asked states to spend more on infrastructure. He spoke about hiking fund allocations to states, whereas CMs kept asking for more. The opposition CMs, notably the ones from Bihar and Tamil Nadu, complained of bias in fund allocations. The Himachal CM gave instances of fund squeeze under Central schemes. The Punjab CM kept up the pressure on a farm debt waiver, while seeking funds for border area development. It was left to Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan to question the replacement of the Planning Commission by the NITI Aayog and point out that the “space for constructive debate is shrinking” with forums such as the National Development Council and the Inter-State Council becoming almost defunct. Two years down the line the NITI Aayog’s role remains hazy and undefined. At the end of the day, it remains far from clear what we mean by “New India”.

Pratap Singh Bajwa.

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 23

The Rajya Sabha on Thursday witnessed brief uproar over the naming of Chandigarh airport, as the Opposition alleged that the BJP government in Haryana does not want to name it after Bhagat Singh.

During the Zero Hour, Ritabrata Banerjee (CPI-M) said there has been a controversy over the naming of the Chandigarh airport.

“The Punjab Government had agreed that the airpot will be named after Shaheed-E-Azam Bhagat Singh, (but) the Haryana Government, the Haryana Chief Minisger said ‘no’. They want to name the airport after Mangal Sein,” he said.

The CPI-M member said there were agitations yesterday to demand naming of the airport after Bhagat Singh. Today is the martyrdom day of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev.

Joining the issue, Congress leader Pratap Singh Bajwa also demanded that the airport be named after Bhagat Singh.

He said one side there is a demand to name the airport after the great freedom fighter, but on the other hand, the BJP wanted to name it after the party’s ex-Chief Minister.

As several opposition members were up on their feet and created an uproar, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi countered the allegations saying “we have never said it and nobody has said it. Its not proper to make such sweeping statements”.

The minister said Bhagat Singh was a martyr and was respected by everyone.

As the uproar continued, Deputy Chairman P J Kurien asked Naqvi to take note of the suggestion to which the minister said “yes”.

As senior JD-U member Sharad Yadav associated himself with the opposition demands, Leader of Opposition and Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad wanted to know from the Centre whether or not it has decided to name the airport after Bhagat Singh.

“Government has said that the suggestion has been taken note of. They will consider it,” Kurien said, adding Bhagat Singh was a great martyr and everbody respects him.

Partap Singh Bajwa of Congress also made a demand that two-minute silence should be observed on every March 23 before starting the business of the House. —PTI

The petitioner moved the top court after the Allahabad High Court rejected its petition. Tribune file photo

Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 22

The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued notices to the Center, secretary-generals of the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha, the Election Commission and the Attorney-General on a PIL challenging generous pension and allowances given to former legislators.

A Bench headed by Justice J Chelameswar decided to examine the issues raised in a PIL filed by Lok Prahari—an NGO—which wanted the top court to scrap pension and allowances, including lifetime free railway travel, given to former lawmakers.

The petitioner moved the top court after the Allahabad High Court rejected its petition.

The court issued notices to the respondents after petitioner’s  counsel Kamini Jaiswal pointed out that there were no guidelines for pension and allowances given to former MPs and MLAs.

Government employees had to contribute to the pension fund for availing the post-retirement benefits while former lawmakers’ pension was paid from the consolidated fund of India, i.e., taxpayers’ money, Jaiswal argued.

Before issuing notice on the PIL, the Bench said: “We have seen an era when MPs after being in public life for long have died as paupers.” However, it noted that facilities and allowances must be reasonable and not arbitrary.

“Politics has become the most lucrative profession even for the scum of the society,” Lok Praharinotices General Secretary and a former bureaucrat SN Shukla had told the Bench on Tuesday.

Questioning the law made by Parliament permitting former lawmakers giving generous allowances, the petitioner NGO alleged that the pension and perks for them should be withdrawn.

“While the governors do not have the facility of pension at all, an MP even for a day and his spouse get pension for life. While even serving judges of the Supreme Court and high courts do not have the facility of free air/train travel for their spouses even on official tours, ex-MPs enjoy unlimited free train travel for life in AC-II with a companion 365 days a year,” the petitioner alleged.

An ex-MP becomes an unwarranted burden on the citizens, the NGO said, adding, it was not their birthright to fleece the public they no longer represented.

BIS Chahal. File photo

Rajmeet Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 21

The Punjab Government appointed Bharat Inder Singh Chahal as advisor to Chief Minister Amarinder Singh.

A close confidant of Amarinder Singh, Chahal, who will hold the rank of a Minister of State, has previously served as the his media advisor during his previous tenure as chief minister from 2002-2007 and was seen as the most powerful person around him.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)After being defeated in the 2007 election, Amarinder and Chahal faced vigilance cases registered by Parkash Singh Badal-led SAD government. An old associate of Amarinder’s, Chahal would again be seen in the important role in the new Congress government.

Raveen Thukral, a senior journalist who steered Amarinder’s media campaign in the recent assembly polls, has also been appointed a media advisor in the rank of Minister of State (MoS).  He has been part of Amarinder’s core team since taking over as his media strategist in October 2016.

He will take over his new duties on Wednesday.

Besides, Khubi Ram, a retired IG of Punjab Police who has been the chief minsiter’s security liaison officer has been appointed security advisor to the chief minister. He will hold the rank of an ADGP.

Other key appointments are Capt Sandeep Sandhu, Maj Amardeep Singh and Karanpal Sekhon, all of who have been appointed as OSDs.

Tral, the hub of the terrorist outfit Hizbul Mujahideen, is difficult to protect. Undue attention towards the LoC is responsible for Tral being neglected. It needs a fresh approach and there are various hard and soft measures which can be combined together to create the right concept to tackle a problem area such as this.

Tral, a problem area, offers a security challenge because of its geographical location.

Avid television watchers in the country may be familiar with the name Tral. Every few weeks a ticker at the bottom of the television screens announces “terrorists trapped in Tral”. There are reports of “terrorist or Army action in Pulwama,” the district in which Tral tehsil falls. In recent times Tral has become notorious as the home town of Burhan Wani, the young terrorist leader whose death sparked the 2016 virtual Kashmir “Intifida.” His was one of the largest funeral gatherings seen in Kashmir in recent times.

Almost 20 years ago, I was the overall coordinator of all anti-terror operations in South Kashmir at the newly set up garrison at Avantipura, just above the National Highway, 25 kilometres from Srinagar towards Anantnag. Victor Force was (and still is) the formation of the Rashtriya Rifles (RR), which oversees the security of South Kashmir. Yet much more in the news for the last 27 years has been the wide open bowl with the high Wasterwan hills on one flank. Tral bowl, a tehsil of Pulwama has been a pain for many of us who have had the pleasure of serving at Avantipura, the headquarters of Victor Force (RR). 

For two years, Tral held me mentally captive. A virtual citadel east of the Highway, then there were insufficient troops to hold it and conduct operations from within the bowl. Whenever the situation heated up with terrorist criminal acts or incidents involving ambushes and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) on the Highway, we would conduct operations in Tral’s  various villages by moving troops from elsewhere. The troops approach through the wide open mouth of the bowl would be observed by the terrorists, giving them sufficient time to get away to the higher reaches leaving a few hideouts to be busted. 

Tral is the Hizbul Mujahideen’s centre of gravity in terms of resident terrorism. The Hizbul Mujahideen has not permitted any other major group to settle and operate here. Why does Tral occupy that special importance for the terror group? It is the ground which dictates the discourse, a typical tough infantryman’s territory. If you are driving from the Jawahar tunnel to Srinagar past Anantnag, Tral falls ahead of Bijbehara, closer to Avantipura but 10 kilometres to the east of the Highway. The bowl is shaped like a dog’s leg, with a large opening converging with the curvatures of the hills, north and south, towards the town itself. Thereafter, it takes a northerly turn for some kilometres and ends up after narrowing at the Wagad ridge, which on the other side leads to the Khreuh bowl. Further behind Tral town loom the heights of the ridgeline emanating from Aru, close to Pahalgam. This mountainous area has beautiful meadows, occupied by nomadic Bakarwals during summer. 

Because of the problem of logistics, there is no deployment of the Army here. There is no communication artery in this virgin country. In this area, the Al Firan had initially kidnapped five foreign tourists in 1995 and kept them in captivity. The book The Meadow, by Adrian Levy Scot and Cathy Scott-Clark, based upon the incident and the subsequent events, describes the meadows and the ground between Tral and Aru in detail. It is suspected that the hideouts of the Tral terrorists exist in these meadows and kothas of the shepherds. In Army’s language, just conducting operations on a hunch and without solid intelligence is called “jungle bashing”. It is exhausting to send out a large body of troops into no-man’s land, hoping there will be contact with errorists. Even if you score a couple of successes, taking it beyond that is never possible unless you occupy the area with troops in the form of a grid of posts and picquets. Sooner than later, terrorists will reoccupy the area. 

Tral is supported by geography. From the bowl the alignment to Pahalgam, Amarnath shrine and down to the Mahadeo Ridge, a swathe of mountainous territory which remains unoccupied offers the finest potential for hideouts, training camps and rest bases for terrorists in summer. Just around Wagad (see map), for many years the infamous Hizbul Mujahideen tactical radio control station “Muslim”, functioned with impunity. Its voice carried far and wide, coordinating the terrorist activities all over the Valley, including infiltration, emplacement of IEDs and even criminal acts. The advent of mobile technology ended Muslim’s rule of the air waves. From Victor Force, we planned and executed many a foray into the mountains around Wagad and even dropped troops by helicopter to get hold of Muslim. Apart from disturbing Muslim’s comfort, we could not get him. Once we did manage to destroy some equipment but it was back on air with vengeance, cocking a snook at us.

Some of the most daring operations of the RR and the Special Forces have been conducted in the Tral bowl. In the mid 1990s, the Army was deployed in the Tral tehsil but subsequent priorities saw change and a few companies of the BSF moved in and out a few times. In 2002, the newly raised 42 RR took over responsibility of the tehsil with six operating bases hugging the lower heights from where the climb to the higher reaches commenced. The unit has been involved in some very high-intensity encounters. On January 27, 2015 the then Commanding Officer of 42 RR, Colonel Munindra Nath Rai, was killed in an operation in which he was leading from the front with his quick-reaction team. Recently, Major Rishi was seriously injured while tackling terrorists holed up in a house.

I knew Tral extremely well but regret today that somehow in my own tenure in command of the Valley I failed to tackle the tehsil due to undue attention towards the LoC. Tral needs a fresh approach and there are various hard and soft measures which can be combined to create the right concept to tackle a problem area such as this.  

Lastly, the tehsil should not be treated as a basket case because of its notorious past and link with Burhan Wani. Tral may have given quite a few terrorists to the Hizbul, but it has given many more steadfast and patriotic soldiers to the JAK Light Infantry regiment of the Indian Army — this is what must be kept in mind while approaching it. This challenge should have been taken up a long time ago.