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ARMY CHIEF: NEED TO BYPASS US SANCTIONS

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NEW DELHI: Army chief General Bipin Rawat has said that it is critical that India find ways to bypass American sanctions against Russia, given that Russian-origin weaponry is in widespread use in the Indian armed forces.

In his first comments on US sanctions against India’s top arms supplier, Rawat said: “We have to pursue own national interests and see what’s good for us. India has a large quantity of Russian weapons and platforms. So there are legacy issues.”

India is in talks with the United States to secure a sanctions waiver as its military is heavily dependent on Russian equipment, and the matter is likely to be discussed during the proposed 2+2 talks between the defence and foreign ministers of the two sides, said a person familiar with the development who asked not to be identified.

The dialogue was to begin in Washington on July 6 but the United States postponed it (for the third time) because its secretary of state Mike Pompeo had to visit North Korea.

The sanctions by the United States could be bypassed through an alternative payment route to sustain bilateral IndoRussian defence trade, said Rawat.

“It’s not just about new equipment, other aspects such as spares, servicing and technical support are equally important,” the army chief said.

Russian-origin equipment forms the backbone of the army’s armoured and mechanised infantry units.

The United States passed the Countering America’s Adversaries through Sanctions Act earlier this year.

The new United States legislation does provide some flexibility for countries such as India that are dependent on Russian equipment, but Washington wants India to diversify its suppliers of military equipment and reduce dependence on Russian military hardware.

“Whether it’s the army, navy or air force, we have been using Russian equipment for decades. Some of the deals that are coming to fruition now (with Russia) such as the S-400 Triumf air defence missile systems have been under discussion for a few years. These factors need to be understood,” said a senior government official who did not wish to be named.

The United States has already flagged concerns about the proposed sale of the S-400 Triumf air defence missile systems to India, saying it would complicate interoperability between the Indian and American militaries.

Figures serve to illustrate India’s dependence on Russian military hardware.

Russia accounted for 62% of India’s arms imports between 2013 and 2017, according to a report released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) in March.

On June 5, defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman said talks on the S-400 Triumf air defence missile systems purchase were in the final stages and that India had told the US that the sanctions cannot impact Indo-Russian military cooperation.

India is likely to ink a ₹ 39,000crore deal with Russia later this year for five S-400 missile systems, capable of destroying jets, missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles at a range of 400 km.

If left unaddressed, the issue of sanctions could upset the calculations of India’s military planners, said air vice marshal Manmohan Bahadur (retired), additional director general, Centre for Air Power Studies.

“It is vital that Russian-origin assets, which are in large numbers in the armed forces, are operationally maintained with continuous flow of spares and other logistics support,” he said.

“We will be using these costly assets not just during the next few years but for a couple of decades at least.”

Army man battles to get passport renewed

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Army man battles to get passport renewed

Ravinder Singh

Rachna Khaira

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, July 1

An Army man posted in Jammu and Kashmir has been running from pillar to post for over a month to get his passport renewed from the Regional Passport Office (RPO) in Jalandhar. He was shocked to find out that his passport had already been renewed and issued to another man in 2010 by the RPO in Amritsar.Ravinder Singh, who hails from Kastiwal village in Batala, told The Tribune that his passport had expired in 2013. He said he could not get it renewed due to professional commitments.He said, “I had lost my high school certificate in 2008 and got a duplicate one issued in May 2010. When I approached the Jalandhar RPO office last month, I was told that my passport had already been renewed and issued to some other person in May 2010 itself.”He said while the renewed passport bore his name, date of birth and names of his parents, the address and the photograph on the passport were different. He said the RPO authorities had asked him to provide the fee receipt that he got while getting the copy of his high school certificate from the Punjab School Education Board.“How can I produce a fee receipt that I got eight years ago?” questioned Ravinder.He added that he even went to the Batala police to lodge an FIR but they refused to do so and instead asked him to approach the RPO office in Amritsar again.Amritsar RPO Raj Kumar Bali said as there was no online passport “sewa” in 2008, someone might have managed to get a passport renewed on his name.“Earlier, it was a common practice to target Army men for making forged passports. Agents in connivance with local police used to get forged passports made by clearing their police verification,” said Bali.He said as the authorities used to paste photographs manually over the passport, there might be a possibility that someone might have taken out Ravinder’s photograph and pasted his own.He said Ravinder might now have to wait for months to get his passport renewed as he would have to wait for the final report of the inquiry that would soon be initiated by his office. Feeling harassed and dejected, Ravinder returned to J&K on Sunday.

What to talk of the UN Kashmir report? by Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi

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Prince Zaid was briefed by Pakistan’s Special Envoy on Kashmir Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari in March and the UN High Commission for Human Rights report has the Pak print all over it.

What to talk of the UN Kashmir report?

MOTIVATED? Zeid Ra”ad Al Hussein, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. AFP

Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi

INDIAN Army Chief Bipin Rawat has broken his silence on the recent UN report cataloguing alleged human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir. “I don’t think we need to speak on the United Nations report on Kashmir,” he said.That the Army Chief has taken cognisance of the UN report on Kashmir following the vehement rejection of its veracity by the Centre is interesting to note. But merely saying it isn’t worth talking about as it is “motivated” or “fallacious”, “tendentious” and “overtly prejudiced” to build a “false narrative” is not sufficient. Truth has to be told with more intellectual rigour and courage with due respect to international laws.A critical appraisal of the 49-page report prepared by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) unravels its fallibility based on ‘unverified information’. Hence, every unbiased observer took it with a pinch of salt. India was not alone in its strongly worded rebuttal to the OHCHR report. Six more nations rejected the report authored by Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein: two from Asia (Bhutan, Afghanistan), one from Africa (Mauritius), one from Eurasia (Belarus), and two from Latin America (Cuba, Venezuela). The report was discussed and dismissed by all these countries during the ‘General debate on the overall update of the High Commissioner on the situation of Human Rights worldwide and on the activities of his office’ at the Human Rights Council. Both the motif and timing of the report were questioned, and rightly so. Taking into account that this ‘probe’ into alleged human rights violations in Kashmir was headed by the Jordanian diplomat and OHCHR chief Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, it is not difficult to find fallibility in it. The UN High Commissioner’s mandate clearly states that he should conduct his work respecting “sovereignty, territorial integrity and domestic jurisdiction of member states.” But to the utter surprise of the close observers of the Indo-Pak conflict, Zeid was recently seen in pictures with Pakistani Hurriyat faction leader Syed Faiz and other leaders from Pakistan. This has led to the crucial question: where were his facts coming from?Zeid proclaims that his findings are based on documentary evidence in the public domain, including from governmental sources in Kashmir, India and Pakistan. But there is little to support his credentials in the compilation of this report. The Jordanian diplomat-Prince Zeid became the High Commissioner for Human Rights in June, 2014 with the approval of the 193 member-states of the United Nations General Assembly. Several diplomats from western democracies stressed Zeid’s Muslim and Arab background combined with his progressive credentials as crucial for bridging the gap between the UN’s western states and Islamic countries. But there are grounds for growing concern and legitimate worries about how dramatically Zeid is seen as an ‘ally’ in Islamic countries like Pakistan. He is arguably referred to as the ‘most befitting friend’ and an ‘avid advocate’ for the cause of ‘Azaad Kashmir’ at UN. On March 9, 2018, Pakistani news channel Neo Tv Network published photos of Zeid R’ad al-Hussain meeting with Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari, a Pakistani politician and Special Envoy of the PM on Kashmir, in his bid to highlight the Pakistan narrative of the Kashmir issue. Tellingly, High Commissioner Zeid thanked the Special Envoy for ‘briefing’ him on the human rights situation, as widely reported. Interestingly, the Pakistani TV channel concludes that the recent report which is the first of its kind released by the UN is an indirect outcome of the meeting between Zeid and Awais. It reports: “On the occasion of Burhan Wani’s killing, Awais Leghari visited Geneva to meet with Zeid al-Ra’ad in order to brief him about Burhan Wani and the Kashmir issue. Only two months after this meet, the UN has broken its 50-year-long silence on the Kashmir dispute, and the credit goes to Zeid al-Ra’ad al-Hussain.” (Source: youtube).This background of the OHRC report on Kashmir raises a pertinent question: Did Zeid look at Kashmir with the same prism as the OIC (Organisation for Islamic Cooperation) where Pakistan flogs its story every year? More particular questions had to be asked in this regard, such as: why did the UN High Commissioner for HR make it a ‘special report’ so selectively, while it does not cite any resolution of the General Assembly, the Human Rights Council or the Security Council as the mandate for it? Worse, Zeid’s report refers to LeT, JeM and Harkat-ul-Mujahideen as “armed groups” while they are all listed as terrorist organisations by the Security Council.The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has egregiously violated his mandate by wholly ignoring the scale of violence being peddled by extremist outfits.One of the major reasons why human rights in Kashmir are in doldrums is religious militancy. Faith-based insurgents have perpetrated grave human rights violations in a large section of the clergy-controlled Kashmiri populace, where secular educational institutions are not welcome.Ansar Ghazwatul Hindi, an avatar of the Al-Qaeda ideology in the valley, promotes medieval concepts and exclusivist online narratives to radicalise the Kashmiri youths. Dukhtaran-e-Millat, an all-woman group, advocates ‘full-veiled jihad’ to establish ‘Islamic’ rule in Kashmir and has supported Kashmir’s two-decade long insurgency, declared secular education akin to haram (forbidden) much like the Boko Haram which translates into ‘western education is haram’. Recently, a school bus carrying children was attacked in the militant-infested Shopian district of South Kashmir. the Parents see an increased risk, when schools in the state have been attacked. Shujaat Bukhari, journalist, fell victim of such dastardly designs for speaking of peace and reconciliation in Kashmir on international forums, just as many other intellectuals have met the same end.At this critical juncture, it is distressing to see human rights bodies undermine their own credibility and ignore the violence of militants.

Major Nikhil Handa misleading us, killer weapon yet to be recovered: Delhi Police on Army officer`s wife`s murder

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Major Nikhil Handa misleading us, killer weapon yet to be recovered: Delhi Police on Army officer's wife's murder

A 40-year-old Army Major was arrested from Uttar Pradesh`s Meerut on June 24, 2018, for allegedly killing a fellow officer`s in west Delhi.

New Delhi: In the Army Major’s wife’s murder case, the Delhi police said on Wednesday that the weapon that they had in their custody was not the weapon with which Shailja Dwivedi was killed.
“The weapon that we have in our custody is not the weapon with which Shailaja was killed. Accused Major Nikhil Handa is giving us misleading information day after day. We have done 90% of the work and in coming days the truth will come out,” Vijay Kumar, DCP West Delhi said, as per ANI.

The 40-year-old Army Major was arrested from Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut on June 24, 2018, for allegedly killing a fellow officer’s wife in west Delhi.

The woman’s body was found with her throat slit near the Brar Square in the Delhi Cantonment area on June 23. Kumar had said earlier that the accused, Major Handa, was “obsessed” with the victim and wanted to marry her.

Another police officer had claimed that the woman and the accused had an affair, PTI reported. Major Handa, who is married with two kids, knew the women and her husband, also a Major in the Army, since 2015, when they both were posted in Nagaland, the DCP had said.

Also Read – How police traced and arrested accused Major Nikhil Handa

The woman’s husband had spotted Major Handa in the CCTV footage of the hospital, where his wife had gone for a physiotherapy session and went missing from there and had told the police that he suspected him.

The police had then started looking for Handa and had found that he was in touch with a couple of friends and was hiding at the officers’ mess in Meerut Cantonment.

A Delhi Police team had reached Meerut and had nabbed Major Handa when he was trying to escape from there in his silver-coloured car. After the arrest, they had informed their counterparts in Meerut.

The accused had come to Delhi from Dimapur on the pretext of treatment.

On June 23, he had met the woman and they had an argument while they were sitting in his car and he had allegedly slit her throat and thrown her out of the vehicle, police officers had said.

The woman had held on to the car after being thrown out, but the accused had run over her and had fled from the spot.

Two knives were found in his car, which indicates that he might have planned it in advance, the police had said.

Initially, the police were informed that a woman had died in an accident. Later, when they had inspected the body, it was found that her throat was slit.

Earlier, the woman was dropped at the Army Base Hospital in her husband’s official vehicle by a driver on June 23.

Later, when the driver had come back to pick her up, he could not find her and had learnt that she did not attend her scheduled physiotherapy session.

Take Care of Your Health, PM Modi Tells Airman Who Fainted During Guard of Honour

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The airman had fainted when the guard of honour was being presented to visiting Seychelles President Danny Faure at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Take Care of Your Health, PM Modi Tells Airman Who Fainted During Guard of Honour
Seychelles President Danny Antoine Rollen Faure inspects a joint military forces guard of honour during his ceremonial reception at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on Monday. (AP)
New Delhi: The summer heat took its toll on an IAF personnel who collapsed during the guard of honour ceremony organised at the Rashtrapati Bhavan for visiting Seychelles President Danny Faure.

Faure, who is on his first bilateral visit to India, was accorded a ceremonial welcome at the Rashtrapati Bhavan by President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Modi on Monday morning.

 After the ceremony ended and the dignitary had left, Prime Minister Narendra Modi walked up to the airman and enquired about his health.
Modi asked him to be careful about his health.
After spending a few minutes with him, Modi left for his official residence, sources in the Prime Minister’s Office said.

The airman had faited when the guard of honour was being presented to the visiting dignitary. He was attended by his colleagues and others present there.

UN report right off the mark by Lt Gen D S Hooda (retd)

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Grilling India on violations in J&K, but ignoring Pakistan’s role smacks of ‘propaganda’

UN report right off the mark

One-sided: The report also gives the dos and don’ts, integral to AFSPA, a miss.

Lt Gen D S Hooda (retd)THE Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, on June 14, published the Report on the Situation of Human Rights in Kashmir for the period of June 2016 to April 2018. While the report covers both sides of the Line of Control, its main focus is on the incidents of alleged excesses committed by the Indian security forces following the killing of Burhan Wani in July 2016. The report was swiftly and categorically rejected by India. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) called it “fallacious, tendentious and motivated” and “a selective compilation of largely unverified information. It is overtly prejudiced and seeks to build a false narrative”. The MEA also said the “report violates India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. The entire state of Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India…The incorrect description of Indian territory in the report is mischievous, misleading and unacceptable. There are no entities such as ‘Azad Jammu and Kashmir’ and ‘Gilgit-Baltistan’”. There have been a number of accounts dealing with human rights in Jammu and Kashmir, but the first reaction on reading the report is a sense of disbelief that a respected international organisation like the United Nations would bring out what could more accurately be described as a “propaganda manual”. Perhaps after being denied “unconditional access to Kashmir”, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights is showing his ire by a compilation that is completely prejudiced, and, in many ways, impinges on the sovereignty of the Indian state. The report claims to base its methodology using the “reasonable grounds” standard of proof based on a “reliable body of information”, but it selectively uses data to build a completely biased picture, questioning Indian lawmakers, judiciary and security forces. Its main source of information is the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society, whose data of persons killed in the 2016 protests appears to take precedence over the figures announced by the Chief Minister in the Legislative Assembly.In completely ignoring the role of Pakistan in exporting terror into Kashmir, and describing the Hizbul Mujahideen (which has been designated as a terrorist group by India, the European Union and the United States) as an armed group, the bias and motivations are clearly visible. There is a lengthy section on the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), 1990, which has given the “security forces virtual immunity against prosecution for any human rights violation”. The report also claims that Section 4 of AFSPA that allows any person operating under the law to use lethal force “contravenes several international standards on the use of force and related principles of proportionality and necessity”. It completely ignores the dos and don’ts which form an integral part of AFSPA and which state that minimum force will be used, and that a clear need will be established for opening fire. This is just one example of how the report has used facts selectively.The report also comes down heavily on the military courts and the Armed Forces Tribunal, accusing them of “impeding access to justice”. While there is a lively debate in India on AFSPA and military courts, these are sovereign functions of Indian lawmakers. By questioning these functions, the UN High Commissioner is clearly overstepping his authority.When the report commences the discussion on the events from 2016 to 2018, it clearly demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of the situation that existed, particularly following the killing of Burhan Wani. The security forces are accused of using excessive force while no mention is made of the violent mobs that attacked police stations, army convoys and patrols. Figures are extensively quoted for civilian casualties, but there is no mention of the more than 3,300 security personnel who were injured in the very first month of the protests. The report has bold headings on “Torture”, “Enforced disappearances” and “Sexual violence”. While stating that there have “long been persistent claims of torture by security forces in Kashmir”, the report has listed three cases of “torture” in the 2016-18 period — one of whom is Farooq Ahmad Dar, who was tied to a jeep. There is one incident of “enforced disappearance” and no reported case of sexual violence. These are again examples of an attempt to embellish and sensationalise the report.It is illuminating to compare the tone and tenor of this report with the Afghanistan Annual Report on Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict: 2017, published in February 2018 by the same Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the United Nation Assistance in Afghanistan (UNAMA). Between January 1 and December 31, UNAMA documented 10,453 civilian casualties in which there were 3,438 deaths. Of these deaths, 745 were attributed to pro-government forces, with aerial operations alone causing 295 deaths. Despite these casualty figures, the report says, “UNAMA observed that the number of airstrikes conducted by international military forces and Afghan air forces has increased significantly compared to 2016, while the number of civilian casualties has increased by 7 per cent. While emphasizing that no civilian casualties are acceptable, the reduced harm ratio suggests improvements in targeting and civilian protection procedures.” There is no strident criticism.The timing of the release of the report is also intriguing. It was released during the period of the Ramzan ceasefire, at a time when the government was making its most sincere effort to create a period of calm in Kashmir. Such a malicious piece of work can only serve to vitiate the environment in Jammu and Kashmir, and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights could not have been unaware of this. If this was done with a deliberate intent, the matter is extremely serious.Today, Kashmir is mourning the killing of Shujaat Bukhari, one of its most respected journalists. Terror attacks have intensified and the ceasefire is unlikely to be extended. In this highly volatile environment, this clearly motivated and prejudiced piece of work deserves to be thoroughly condemned. The writer is a former GOC, Northern Command

India to get six Apache US copters for $930 m

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AH-64E Apache is a multi-role combat helicopter and is used by the US army and a number of international defence forces

India to get six Apache US copters for $930 m

Washington, June 13

The Trump administration has approved a deal to sell six AH-64E Apache attack helicopters to India for $930 million as well as Hellfire and Stinger missiles to bolster the country’s ability to defend its homeland and deter “regional threats”, the Pentagon said on Wednesday.The Pentagon’s notification to the Congress comes ahead of the first 2+2 dialogue between India and the US next month in Washington DC involving External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and their American counterparts Mike Pompeo and James Mattis.Pentagon’s Defence Security Cooperation Agency notified the Congress about the State Department’s decision. The sale is expected to pass through if no lawmaker opposes the notification.The contract also includes fire control radars, Hellfire Longbow missiles, Stinger Block I-92H missiles, night vision sensors and inertial navigation systems.In 2016, India was awarded the status of a US major defence partner. — PTI

Adopt These Lifestyle And Diet Changes To Regulate Blood Pressure Effectively

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A new study by the Andrews University has demonstrated that a programme aimed at helping people modify their lifestyle and diets, can be as effective against high blood pressure, as medication.

Adopt These Lifestyle And Diet Changes To Regulate Blood Pressure Effectively

High blood pressure and hypertension are serious ailments affecting large swathes of the urban population nowadays, thanks to the increasingly sedentary lifestyles and unhealthy diets. Repeated studies have demonstrated how exercise and other lifestyle changes can help mitigate the disease. Now, another study by the Andrews University has demonstrated that a programme aimed at helping people modify their lifestyle and diets, can be as effective against high blood pressure, as medication. The study, that was presented at the American Society for Nutrition annual meeting, Nutrition 2018 in Boston, showed that some 117 participants saw a drop in their blood pressure by 19 points, after they adopted a new lifestyle for just 14 days.

The programme was designed by Weimer Institute Newstart Lifestyle, and the study result showed that the programme achieved for the participants, what using three half-dose standard medications for blood pressure could do for them. The results also showed that a majority of the participants either able to reduce their dosage of blood pressure medicines or eliminate it completely. Research team leader M. Alfredo Mejia, associate professor at Andrews University was quoted as saying, in a press release, “By adapting selected lifestyle health principles, half of the people in our study achieved normal blood pressure within two weeks while avoiding the side effects and costs associated with blood pressure medications.”

He added by saying,”The Newstart Lifestyle program works quickly, is inexpensive and uses a palatable diet that allows for moderate amounts of salt and healthy fats from nuts, olives, avocado and certain vegetable oils.” The programme that the participants were asked to follow included following a vegan diet, taking daily walks, drinking adequate water and getting enough sleep, as well as participating in spiritual activities. The diet especially included fresh produce like fruits and vegetables, as well as nuts and seeds, non-dairy milks like almond and soy milk, as well as avocados. The participants were only given whole-grain breads. At the end of the programme, half the participants showed systolic blood pressure below the recommended 120 mmHg.

Here are some more diet tips that may help you regulate high blood pressure:

1. Cut back on caffeine: Consuming too much caffeine may lead to a sudden rise in blood pressure. Therefore, for blood pressure patients, it may be advisable to cut back on caffeine consumption.

2. Consume oatmeal: Oats are chock-full of healthy dietary fibre, which may help maintain an optimal blood pressure.

3. Avoid salty foods: Foods rich in trans-fats and excessive sodium or salt are the obvious culprits causing high blood pressure. Therefore, people who have high blood pressure must avoid salty foods.

4. Eat foods rich in magnesium: Spinach, cashews, dark chocolate and other magnesium-rich foods may help you regulate blood pressure.

5. Eat foods rich in potassium: Foods rich in potassium like bananas, kidney beans, flax seeds, etc., may help people with hypertension in controlling blood pressure.

(With ANI inputs)

Soldier killed, another injured in attack on patrol along LoC

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TARGETED Kupwara attack comes on a day when the Union home minister is on a two­day visit to J&K

SRINAGAR: A soldier was killed and another injured in a militant attack on an army patrol near the Line of Control (LoC) in Keran sector of Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) on Thursday.

PTI FILESince the unilateral Ramzan ceasefire was announced by the Centre last month, there have been at least three big encounters near the LoC in Kupwara sector.

The attack comes on a day when Union home minister Rajnath Singh is in Kashmir on a two-day visit to review the security situation in the Valley and on the LoC.

Officials said militants attacked the army patrol near the LoC fencing in Keran sector.

Two soldiers were injured in the incident, which was retaliated to by Army personnel, said defence spokesman Colonel Rajesh Kalia.

However, later it was learnt through sources that one of the injured soldier succumbed to his injuries at the Base Hospital in Srinagar.

The army, meanwhile, has not revealed if it was a hit-andrun attack or if the infiltrators had targeted the regular army patrol close to the LoC fence.

Since the unilateral Ramzan ceasefire was announced by the Centre last month, there have been at least three big encounters near the LoC in Kupwara sector in which 10 militants have been killed so far.

Earlier, army had said all the militants killed were foreigners, however, later two turned out to be youngsters from Pulwama district whose bodies were exhumed on Wednesday and handed over to their families.

Recently, Brigadier PK Mishra, commander Tangdhar Brigade, had revealed that the army has strong intelligence inputs that many infiltrators are waiting at the launching pads close to the Line of Control.

“There are many groups of

infiltrators who are waiting for an opportunity to infiltrate. This group even sneaked close to the Pakistani post,’’ the officer said.

After the fresh infiltration,

Army has stepped up vigil along the LoC especially in Kupwara sector. Meanwhile, a militant attempt to loot the cash van of J&K bank was foiled by alert jawans in south Kashmir.

Elite Gurkha contingent to guard Trump-Kim summit

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SINGAPORE: When US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un meet for their historic summit in Singapore later this month, they will be protected by men from one of the fiercest warrior tribes in the world – the Gurkhas of Nepal.

REUTERS■ Gurkhas patrol at the IISS Shangri­la Dialogue in Singapore.

While both leaders will bring their own personal security teams, elite Singaporean police, including its Gurkha Contingent, will be securing the summit venue, roads and hotels, according to diplomats familiar with VIP security in the island state.

The Gurkhas, who have a lowprofile presence in Singapore, were more visible than usual at the weekend as they secured the Shangri-La Hotel for a security conference that included Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, US defence secretary Jim Mattis and other regional ministers.

The Gurkhas, recruited by the Singapore police from the hills of faraway Nepal, were kitted out in body armour, Belgian-made FN SCAR combat assault rifles and pistols in leg holsters at the conference, in what some security experts believed was a dry run for the US-North Korea summit. Despite all the advanced weaponry, the Gurkhas do not prepare for battle without the khukri – the heavy curved knife that is their traditional weapon of choice. According to custom, the khukri must draw blood every time it is unsheathed. “They are among the best Singapore can offer, and I am sure they will be involved (in the summit),” said Tim Huxley, an expert on Singapore’s armed forces at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).