THE Special Task Force, constituted by the Congress government in Punjab to tackle the drug menace in the state, is showing some positive results. It has arrested a CIA Inspector, known in police circles as a “drug recovery specialist”, posted at Kapurthala. Small-level arrests have been made but big fish have escaped the net. Results are inadequate and unsatisfactory. A few days ago the Bathinda SSP and a DSP were accused of facilitating the release of a drug trader. The detention of an SP-rank officer after the Pathankot air base attack suggested a police-drug-terror nexus but the NIA clean chit came without offering a convincing explanation for his activities close to the border with Pakistan. Then there is the all-important 2014 case of ex-DSP Jagdish Singh Bhola, which hinted at political involvement in drug trade. The case has dragged on and seems to be proceeding in favour of the accused. Last year a Jalandhar court acquitted him in one of the cases, which points to weak prosecution. Now his case is being handled by junior-level ED officials. It is hard to believe that drug business could have flourished in Punjab without the knowledge of the police. The fragile law and order situation, the unsolved high-profile murders, the rise of gangsters, the pathetic condition of jails and an abysmal rate of conviction in cases involving politicians do no credit to the Punjab Police and urgently call for its overhaul and depoliticisation.When Capt Amarinder Singh swore with his hand on a holy book to remove the drug affliction from the state within a month of coming to power, people believed him. The expectation was, regardless of the offenders’ position or political colour, none would be spared. Even though three months have passed and impatient opposition parties have started protests, all that the government has to show up by way of result is a litany of promises and an expression of resolve. Low-key submissions have replaced pre-poll thunderous declarations. The Captain’s well-wishers are willing to give him more time but there is a limit to patience.
As India explores diplomatic options to resolve the stand-off between Indian and Chinese troops in the Doklam plateau in Bhutan, the Indian Air Force is ready for any eventuality.
Chief of Indian Air Force Air Chief Marshal B S Dhanoa in an exclusive interview to Indian Today said, “We are ready for any eventuality. The stand-off on the ground continues, diplomatic options are being explored”.
Indian and Chinese troops are engaged in a face-off since June 6 when Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) moved into Doklam Plateau – claimed by both Bhutan and China – demolished bunkers and took away Bhutanese soldiers at gunpoint. India is treaty bound to help Bhutan. The Indian Army moved into Doklam to stop the Chinese from building a road through the disputed area.
Although short on fighters the Indian Air Force is prepared for a “full spectrum” – or a two-front war. “For a full-spectrum war we need a certain number of squadrons which we don’t have immediately. The government,” he said is “aware of the shortage.”
India has recently bought fighter aircrafts from France and the shortfall is likely to be made up soon, he said. “There has never been a two-front war,” Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa said and added the point to ponder is whether the world will allow Pakistan to fight along with China and “world will permit it.
Air Chief Marshal Dhanoa was speaking to India Today to mark the 18th anniversary of Kargil war. The Kargil war – between India and Pakistan – came to end today in 1999. Then commanding a fighter squadron, Air Chief Marshal Dhanoa flew several missions along the Line of Control – the de-facto border between India and Pakistan – destroying Pakistani ammunition dumps and strongholds.
Remembering the Kargil operations, the Air Chief said: “My worst moment was when Squadron Leader Ahuja was killed. Squadron leader Ahuja – who was bomb damage reconnaissance mission – was captured alive and shot dead by Pakistani forces when he ejected after being hit by a missile”.
The IAF could have “knocked off” the Pakistani supply lines and neutralised the Pakistani artillery that was firing into India if the IAF was allowed to cross the LoC during the Kargil war, Air Chief Marhsal B S Dhanoa said.
He was, however, quick to add that “every war is fought to achieve a political motive. The political objective then was to throw out the Pakistani soldiers who had crossed into India. That political objective was achieved”.
Besides, Pakistan was shown as belligerent country. Globally, India was able to take “moral high ground,” he told India Today.
CHANDIGARH: Western Command has ordered a Court of Inquiry into the death of its dental centre commandant, Major General Sanjeev Harbans Gupta, 58, who was cremated on Monday at the Sector-25 cremation ground with full military honours.
Gupta had died on Sunday morning at the golf park of Chandimandir Military Station after his golf cart wobbled while crossing a bridge, due to which he fell into a drain. Gupta was rushed to Command Hospital, Chandimandir, where he succumbed to head and spinal injuries.
A senior officer at Western Command said that there was no railing on the bridge.
He added that a Court of Inquiry is underway on the death of the officer and truth will come out, after which any safety measure, if required, will be taken.
However, Panchkula police have denied any foul play in the official’s death. His family has not filed any complaint in the matter as of now.
Born on March 13, 1959, Gupta, who hailed from Gurdaspur, was commissioned into the Army Dental Corps in September 1981.
A senior dental officer with a distinguished professional repute, he had an outstanding career having performed with great distinction in all courses and appointments held by him, according to the Western Command.
Islamabad, July 13
Pakistan today said it was considering a visa application of Kulbhushan Jadhav’s mother to meet her son, sentenced to death by a military court.External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had two days back said she had written a “personal letter” to Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz asking for approval of Avantika’s visa.She also said that Aziz did not even respond to her letter.(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)A Pakistan foreign office official said asking for recommendations from Aziz to grant visas was against “diplomatic norms”.Jadhav, 46, was sentenced to death by a Pakistani military tribunal in April on charges of espionage and terrorism. India maintains he was kidnapped from Iran. — PTI
Palampur: The military authorities organised a summer adventure camp for children of Army Schools and wards of Army personnel and civil defence staff of the Northern Command under the aegis of DAH Division from June 5 to 10. In the one-week camp, the children will undergo a flurry of activities. OC
Around 8.45 am on Thursday, June 24, 1999, at the height of the Kargil War, an Indian Air Force Jaguar flying close to the Line of Control “lased over” — that is, acquired for bombing using its laser-guided system — a forward base of the Pakistan army. Ultimately, however, the pilot of a second Jaguar that was following close behind — who was supposed to fire the bomb — targeted it “outside the laser basket”; that is, he did not fire it at the military base.
At that precise time, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Pakistan Army chief General Pervez Musharraf were present at the base, shows an official document accessed by The Indian Express. The events of what might have been a day of catastrophic disaster have not been made public before.
“On 24 June 1999, Jaguar CLDS [Cockpit Laser Designation System] engaged Point 4388. The pilot had lased over Gulteri across LoC but the bomb did not reach the target as it was released outside the laser basket,” says the document of the Government of India. It then notes, in bold type, that “Later, it was ascertained that the PM of Pakistan, Mr Nawaz Sharif, was present at Gulteri when the target was attacked.”
When the first Jaguar targeted Gulteri base, it was not aware that Sharif and Musharraf were present at the target. An Air Commodore, who was airborne at the same time, however, advised the pilot to not fire the bomb. The bomb was then dropped on the Indian side of the LoC.
Gulteri, also called Gultari, a forward administrative base of the Pakistan Army, was at the forefront of providing logistics support to Pakistani soldiers during the Kargil War. It is approximately nine kilometres inside Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) from the LoC, opposite India’’ Dras sector.
On that day, Sharif, accompanied by Musharraf, was on his first visit to forward areas along the LoC in Shakma sector. In a report titled ‘War no solution to problems, says Nawaz’, the Pakistani newspaper The News, said in its edition of June 25, 1999: “Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif on Thursday reiterated his call for dialogue with India for defusing a war-like situation along the Line of Control (LoC). “I invite the government of India to adopt the way of reconciliation,” so that all disputes including Kashmir could be solved through peaceful means, he said while addressing the troops at the height of 11,600 feet here. Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee and the Army Chief Gen Pervez Musharraf, Defence Secretary Lt Gen (Retd) Iftikhar Ali, Hummayun Akhtar, the Chairman Board of Investment, were also present on the occasion.”
Air Marshal Vinod Patney (retd), who was then the Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the IAF’s Western Air Command, and directly responsible for the air operations in the Kargil War, told The Indian Express about the incident of June 24, 1999: “It was a target in Mushkoh Valley, where a logistics dump was seen by the Jaguar aircraft. The first Jaguar lased against the target and the second Jaguar was to fire a laser-guided bomb. When the captain of the lasing aircraft suddenly had a doubt and told him not to fire, he came back and found from the video that it was Gulteri.”
‘Lasing the target’ happens when the laser guidance system locks on to the target, puts the crosshairs on it, and continues to keep it in the crosshairs, which is visible to the pilot on a screen in the cockpit. As the CLDS system was then fitted on trainer Jaguar aircraft which could not carry weapons, the bombing had to be done by a second Jaguar aircraft. Following at a distance of about three kilometres, the second Jaguar would pick up the laser beam from the target using the LRMTS (laser range-finder and marked-target seeker), and deliver the bomb with pinpoint accuracy.
Air Marshal Patney clarified that “I was neither informed nor aware” about Sharif’s presence at Gulteri. In any case, “hitting Gulteri was against the rules”, said the Air Marshal, who is now director general of the Centre for Air Power Studies (CAPS) in New Delhi.
The government of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had chosen to restrict operations to India’s side of the LoC, and denied the IAF permission to cross the Line while executing missions. Air Marshal Patney’s Air-1 (a senior staff officer) in HQ Western Air Command then, Air Marshal A K Singh (retd), a Jaguar pilot, was airborne in that area during the same time, and was in communication with the pilot of the leading aircraft when this incident occurred. Air Marshal Singh, who was an Air Commodore during the Kargil War, retired as AOC-in-C of the Western Air Command a decade ago, and now leads a retired life in Delhi.
“The time was around 8.45 am. I was also airborne that day in the same area in a Jaguar aircraft, which I had flown from Adampur air base. The flight commander of the leading Jaguar was a Squadron Leader who was my youngster when I had commanded the squadron,” Air Marshal Singh told The Indian Express.
According to Air Marshal Singh, “The flight commander excitedly called me on the radio and said, ‘I have the target in sight. It is a big military camp with a large number of people. I have it on the CLDS.’ I told him not to fire and to tell me whether he was on this side of the river or the other side.”
The flight commander of the first aircraft had lased on to Gulteri while Sharif and Musharraf were there, and the second aircraft was ready to fire the bomb when Air Marshal Singh told them not to fire. The second Jaguar then fired the bomb in Mushkoh Valley on the Indian side of the LoC.
“I was very sure that he was across the LoC as I had overflown that area earlier myself. I also knew the flight commander personally who was excitable and known for his impetuousness. As it was on a riverbank and with a large number of people, the base could only be Gulteri,” Air Marshal Singh said.
“I then told the flight commander, ‘let me fix the position’. It means that my aircraft had to come to a position where I could physically see his aircraft. When I did that, I saw that he was 10-12 kilometres to my right, clearly in Pakistani territory,” said Air Marshal Singh. But Air Marshal Singh refused to fully blame the pilot, ascribing it to “the aircraft equipment which was so inaccurate in terms of border marking and the maps; and where you were, you could not be sure.”
When Air Marshal Singh and the flight commander returned to base and saw the video recorded by CLDS, it was confirmed that the target lased by the Jaguar was indeed Gulteri. The large number of men seen at the post in the video were listening to the speech being delivered by Sharif.
Was it pure luck that a disaster was averted? “It was purely coincidental that I was airborne at that time,” Air Marshal Singh said. “Else, once a pilot is in the air, acquires a target and confirms it, he has orders to bomb it.” In this case, the target of the bombs would have included Nawaz Sharif and Pervez Musharraf, in the middle of a war between two nuclear-armed neighbours.
When contacted by The Indian Express, the IAF spokesperson said, “The IAF would not like to comment on any operational details.”
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Vijay Mohan
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, June 3
The Chandigarh Bench of the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) has enhanced the pension of Majors who retired before 1996. They will get pension as applicable to the higher rank of Lieutenant Colonel with effect from January 2006, bringing them on a par with similarly placed officers who retired after 1996.In 1997, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) had issued a letter granting pay of Lieutenant Colonel to those Majors who had completed 21 years of service. Such officers were also released the pension of a Lieutenant Colonel since pension is based upon last pay drawn. Though the new dispensation did not make much financial difference initially, it resulted in heavy disparity after the Sixth Pay Commission.In 2013, the MoD issued fresh orders for releasing the pension to Majors with more than 21 years commissioned service on a par with Lieutenant Colonels with effect from January 2006, but only those officers who had retired between 1996 and 2006 were covered. This resulted in pre-2006 retirees of the same rank breaking into two groups. While Majors with 21 years of service who retired between 1996 and 2006 were getting a pension of Rs 26,265 per month, others who retired prior to 1996 but had same length of service were getting Rs 18,206.Based on earlier Supreme Court judgements, the AFT Bench comprising Justice Bansi Lal Bhat and Lt Gen Sanjiv Chachra has held that it would be discriminatory to make such a division among pre-2006 retirees based upon a cut-off date. The Bench has directed that a pension applicable to Lieutenant Colonels, as is being given Majors with 21 years of service who retired between 1996 and 2006, be extended to pre-1996 cases also with financial effect from January 2006.The AFT has also directed the MoD to extend the benefit to all affected officers without forcing them into litigation.
Anomaly addressed
Abohar, July 10
An ex-serviceman, who had been working as priest in Hanuman Mandir near the bus stand in Nagrana village in Hanumangarh, was found killed on Sunday.Preliminary investigation indicated that Surmukh Singh, formerly of the Sikh Regiment and native of Manupur village of Samrala sub-division in Ludhiana district, had deserted the Army following the 1984 riots. After court-martial proceedings, his services were terminated.In 1995, he took over as priest at the Hanuman Mandir and was known as Pujari Somgiri. Yesterday, three youths found his blood-stained body on a bed in the open at the temple complex and informed the police. His mobile phone was missing. When a constable dialled his phone number, a person responded and confessed to having killed the priest. He said that 20 persons, including the priest, were witness to his accident in 2012, but none helped him.“I have decided to kill all of them,” the man reportedly warned. — OC
