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General Raheel Sharif says strikes will not be forgotten by Indians for generations, warns of escalating Kashmir dispute

NEW DELHI: Pakistan’s military leadership upped the ante in a war of words with India on Thursday, with army chief Gen Raheel Sharif saying any surgical strike by Pakistan would not be forgotten by Indians for generations to come.

PTI FILEIndia’s surgical strikes along the LoC in September were in response to an earlier attack on an army camp in Uri.

Air force chief Sohail Aman too warned India against escalating a dispute over Kashmir into full-scale war. The rhetoric by the military leadership came a day a flare-up of hostilities along the LoC following the killing of three Indian soldiers, and the mutilation of the body of one, on Tuesday. Pakistani authorities said 11 civilians and three soldiers were killed in shelling by Indian forces.

Sharif, who is on a farewell tour of army units before his retirement on November 29, was quoted by The Express Tribune as saying that “if Pakistan were to launch surgical strikes, India would not be able to forget it for generations to come”.

“India will be teaching its children about Pakistan’s surgical strike if the latter took such measures. Pakistani troops are capable of teaching Indian forces a lesson,” he said. Sharif ’s remarks, made while addressing a ‘jirga’ of tribal elders in the Khyber semi-autonomous region, were also an apparent riposte to the surgical strikes carried out by Indian troops along the LoC in September in retaliation for an attack on an army camp in Uri by Pakistan-based militants.

In Karachi, Air Chief Marshal Sohail Aman said Pakistan’s armed forces were prepared for all contingencies. “We are not worried about India at all, it is better if they show some restraint,” he told reporters on the margins of a defence exhibition.

Meanwhile, India on Thursday said the Pakistan army was giving tacit support to terrorists who targeted an Indian patrol in Machil sector that killed three soldiers. The body of one of the soldiers was mutilated. In a demarche issued to Pakistan deputy high commissioner on Wednesday night, the government conveyed it strongly deplored the tacit support of Pakistan Army to armed terrorists that came from close to Pakistan Army posts on November 22, external affairs ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup said.

The government also protested the deliberate targeting by Pakistan Army of 18 villages along LoC, which resulted in a non-fatal casualty besides causing extensive damage to public and private property and displacement of civilian population, said Swarup.

Simran Sodhi

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 11

China today again lived up to its reputation of being Pakistan’s strong ally and friend when it questioned India’s claims of Pakistan being behind the Uri terror attack and further labelled India’s decision to fence the India-Pak border as ‘irrational’.The comments were made by some leading Chinese experts and carried in Global Times, a newspaper which is known to be close to the Chinese Government and is viewed primarily as a channel to promote and reflect the perspective of the Chinese Government.Post the Uri attack, India has tried to show to the world Pakistan’s complicity in the attacks and the Chinese statement today is a setback.“India is making a very irrational decision, since no exhaustive investigation has been conducted after the Uri incident, and no evidence proves Pakistan is behind the attack,” Hu Zhiyong, a research fellow from the Institute of International Relations of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, is quoted by the Global Times on Monday.China’s reaction to India’s decision to seal the 3,323-km border with Pakistan by December 2018 is also a bit of a shocker. Hu is quoted as saying that this action was reflective of the “Cold War mentality” and that this “would only cause deeper hatred among residents living in India and Pakistan-controlled Kashmir”.On Monday, China had accused India of trying to make political gains by insisting on the United Nations ban on Jaish Chief Masood Azar as an international terrorist. Even on the entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), while China seems open to talks, it is quite clear that it would never let India into the club without dragging the case of Pakistan’s membership alongside.On Saturday, PM Narendra Modi is scheduled to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in Goa. Sources have indicated that Modi will again raise the issue of India’s entry into the NSG with Xi. However, in light of the series of comments coming out of China in the past two days, the meeting between the two leaders is likely to yield no results

HM to brief regional media on Oct 17

• Home Minister Rajnath Singh would address nearly 150 editors of the regional media in Chandigarh on October 17 to explain them the state of the country’s internal security scenario and also the prevailing situation along the India-Pakistan border
• The two-day event would see participants from Haryana, Punjab, Himachal, J&K, Chandigarh, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Assam and other Northeastern states

Photo from the twitter account of @airnewsalerts

Balasore, November 21

India on Monday successfully test-fired its indigenously developed nuclear capable Prithvi-II missile twice in quick succession as part of a user trial by the army from a test range at Chandipur in Odisha.

In salvo mode, the two surface-to-surface missiles which have a strike range of 350 km and are capable of carrying 500 kg to 1,000 kg of warheads were successfully test-fired in quick succession from mobile launcher from launch complex-3 of the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at around 9.35 am, defence sources said.

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A similar twin trial had been conducted on October 12, 2009 from the same base where both tests were successful.

The missile is thrusted by liquid propulsion twin engines. It uses advanced inertial guidance system with manoeuvring trajectory to hit its target, they said.

The missiles were randomly chosen from the production stock and the entire launch activities were carried out by the specially formed strategic force command (SFC) and monitored by the scientists of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) as part of training exercise, a defence scientist said.

The missile trajectory was tracked by the DRDO radars, electro-optical tracking systems and telemetry stations located along the coast of Odisha, sources said. The downrange teams on board the ship deployed near the designated impact point in the Bay of Bengal monitored the terminal events and splashdown.

Inducted into Indian armed forces in 2003, the nine-metre-tall, single-stage liquid-fuelled Prithvi-II is the first missile to be developed by the DRDO under the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme, defence sources said.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has banned two militant groups with links to the Islamic State and al-Qaeda for their involvement in several terror attacks, according to the National Counter-Terrorism Authority (NACTA).

AFP FILEOfficials said the groups were banned after recent deadly attacks in Balochistan and Sindh provinces.

The website of NACTA showed the ban on Jamaat-ul-Ahrar and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi al-Alami was imposed on November 11, taking the total number of proscribed groups to 63.

The Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD), blamed for the 2008 Mumbai attacks, is not among the banned organisations and is only “under observation”.

Lashkar-e-Jhangvi al-Alami has been linked to the Islamic State while Jamaat-ul-Ahrar is linked to al-Qaeda.

Jamaat-ul-Ahrar is a breakaway faction of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan and Lashkar-iJhangvi Al-Alami is also affiliated with sectarian organisations that have targeted the Shia minority.

Officials said both groups were banned after deadly attacks in Balochistan and Sindh provinces, including an assault at the Sufi Shah Noorani shrine in Balochistan that killed 52 people.

The IS claimed the attack on the shrine and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi al-Alami spokesman Ali bin Sufyan said his group was cooperating with the IS “directly or indirectly”.

The IS and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi al-Alami also claimed an attack on a police academy in Balochistan that killed more than 60 people.

The Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), a Sunni group, has its roots in Punjab province and has usually targeted the Shia minority.

Jamaat-ul-Ahrar had claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on the Civil Hospital in Quetta in August that had killed at least 75 people.

Two LeJ militants were recently arrested for killing qawwal Amjad Sabri in Karachi but this was later denied by police.

The list of banned groups on the NACTA website showed that the JuD has been “under observation” since January 17, 2007.

The Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed have been listed as banned groups since January 14, 2002.

Army gives footage; ministers ‘not to speak out of turn’

Armymen patrol near LoC in Pallanwala sector, 70 km from Jammu. PTI

K V Prasad

Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 5

Amid the political clamour for authenticating the surgical strikes by the Indian Army on terror launch pads across the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir, the emphatic view among those tasked with security is that there is little room for such a concession.Doubting Thomases can continue to raise questions, but sources privy to the thinking in the higher echelons of the security establishment on the South Block told The Tribune that notwithstanding the vociferous demands, the government is unwilling to succumb to it.Across the border, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif continued to raise the temperature on developments in Jammu and Kashmir and maintained that without any investigation into the Uri incident, within a few hours, India blamed Pakistan for the attack.On his part, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is understood to have cautioned his Cabinet colleagues not to speak out of turn on the surgical strikes and leave the job to those entrusted to comment. The sources said the view is that succumbing to the demand of providing evidence would be a cowardly response. This categorical assertion came even as the Army handed over footage of the strikes recorded by the assault teams.(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)“The laid-down procedure has been followed. The DGMO [Director General of Military Operations] briefed [about the surgical strikes]. It was not the Defence Minister, nor the PM and not the Home Minister. That was the right thing to do and they [Army] did it. There was a time when documents were submitted. Now clips are given and the clips have been given,” Minister of State for Home Hansraj Ahir told reporters here.As the debate intensified, the Congress sought to couch the demand for making the evidence public as it will help to call Pakistan’s bluff. “Time was ripe to expose the malicious lies,” it said.

A BSF soldier patrols along a fence at the India-Pakistan border in RS Pura south-west of Jammu. — AFP

Ravi Dhaliwal & Amir Karim Tantray

Tribune News Service

Gurdaspur/Jammu, October 4

Pakistani troops on Tuesday again resorted to mortar shelling and firing on Army posts and civilian areas along the LoC in Jammu and Rajouri districts, even as BSF sources said eight men spotted near the India-Pak border in Punjab’s Gurdaspur recently might have come scouting the area for a possible militant strike.Meanwhile, amid heightened vigil, BSF troops seized an empty Pakistani boat on the Ravi in the Pathankot sector on Tuesday.

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Defence Spokesman Col Manish Mehta said, “Pakistan troops resorted to unprovoked firing in three areas of Noushera in Rajouri district from 0515 hours today.”They fired mortar bombs, automatic weapons and small arms, he said, adding that Indian troops gave a befitting reply.This was the sixth ceasefire violation in the past 36 hours when Pakistan troops have resorted to shelling and firing on Indian posts and civilian areas along the LoC.No casualties were reported in firing that began at Pallanwala at 1.35 pm on Tuesday. Mortars were being used by the Pakistan side and appropriate response was being given by the Indian Army.Yesterday, the Pakistani troops violated ceasefire four times and restored to heavy firing and mortar shelling in Saujian, Shahpur-Kerni, Mandi and KG sectors in Poonch district, injuring five civilians.UAVs seen close to border, says BSF The BSF said it has witnessed movement of UAVs very close to the Indo-Pak border in the recent past.”No doubt, the overall vigil has been increased (along western borders). All the defence and security forces establishments are on their highest alert. There is tension on the western border…we are having active engagement (with Pakistan) at the Line of Control and we are receiving shelling from the other side. However, we are in supportive role at the LoC (to army),” BSF Director General K K Sharma told reporters in Delhi.”We have noticed UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) coming 100 metre up to the border…maybe they (Pakistani forces) want to check our preparedness but I can assure you that we are fully capable of giving a befitting reply and we will not allow any nefarious design of terrorists to succeed,” he said.‘CCTV footage showed unarmed men close to fence’Meanwhile, two days after the border guards saw “suspicious movement” near the India-Pakistan border in Gurdaspur, BSF sources said eight unknown men spotted near the border may have been scouting for a possible militant strike.Senior BSF officers who were at Chakri on Tuesday claimed that images captured by CCTVs showed what clearly looked like people near the border, after the force reportedly cast doubts over what they had seen. A video showed the men, all unarmed, scattering when the guards began firing at them, sources said.  “Our Jalandhar-based analysts who checked the contents of the DVR have found some useful information. A group of unarmed men were loitering at a distance of 800 metre to 1 km from the barbed wire fencing… We can say with conviction that they were not smugglers. They had come to carry out a recce. An infiltration bid at a later date cannot be ruled out. We have tightened security near the border while the police have been asked to act as the second line of defence,” a BSF officer said, not wanting to be named because he was not authorised to speak to the press.Until Monday night, the force was unsure if they had seen humans or a herd of cattle, sources said.However, coming as it did within hours of a militant strike at an Army camp in Baramulla, the development led to increased security in Punjab’s borders, particularly since the state has seen two terrorist strikes within six months of each other in the past year-and-a-half. Seventy personnel from the Punjab Armed Police have been deployed in area on the Punjab Police’s insistence.Although the BSF have not commented, police appeared to confirm that some people had been spotted near the area.“Now that we have concrete evidence that a group of men were sighted on the Pakistani side of the border we have increased surveillance in the area. All neighbouring villages are being searched. The operation will continue till tomorrow, when we will review it in the presence of senior officers. There are chances that the group may have acted as a camouflage to enable some men sneak in. We are ruling out nothing… we are leaving nothing to chance,” said Superintendent of Police Jasdeep Singh, who oversaw the deployment and remained at Dorangla for a large part of Tuesday.After an empty Pakistani boat was seized on the Ravi, a BSF officer said, “We have captured a Pakistani boat which had washed away to this side in the Ravi along the International Border (IB) in Pathankot sector.” a senior BSF officer said.The boat was probably washed away due to the rising water level in the Ravi in Pathankot sector, he said.The seizure comes two days after a Pakistani boat with nine crew members was apprehended off the Gujarat coast by the Indian Coast Guard on October 2. — With agencies

New Delhi, November 18The government today said it has enhanced the lump sum ex gratia being paid to families of military personnel.With effect from January 1 this year, next of kin in case of death in the course of duties attributable to actions of violence by terrorists etc has been increased to Rs 25 lakh in place of Rs 10 lakh earlier, Minister of State for Defence Subhash Bhamre said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.In cases of death occurring during enemy action in war or border skirmishes or in action against militants, terrorists, the amount has been increased to Rs 35 lakh from the Rs 15 lakh at present.The Army Group Insurance Fund for Officers has been raised to Rs 75 lakh for officers with effect from October 1, 2016, from Rs 60 lakh while for JCOs/other ranks, the amount has been increased to Rs 37.5 lakh from Rs 30 lakh. — PTI

Sharif’s UN speech raising Kashmir was inflection point

From page 1 NEW DELHI: India will neither forgive nor forget, Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared less than a week after the Uri outrage. It wasn’t just rhetoric: Modi had already okayed a strike against Pakistani terrorist launchpads across the Line of Control (LoC).

AP FILEBorder Security Force soldiers patrol the India-Pakistan international border in Akhnoor sector.

The decision to punish Pakistan was conveyed to defence minister Manohar Parrikar and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval on September 23, and the build-up to D-day began the next day.

It was no rash decision. The diplomatic route was chosen before unsheathing the iron fist. Immediately after the September 18 attack on the Indian Army at Uri, Modi called Doval for information on the perpetrators and how they managed to get inside the brigade headquarters.

The Pakistan connection became evident from the GPS sets found on the four dead terrorists as well as from the interrogation of their two guides caught by Uri villagers.

Pakistan’s High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit was summoned on September 21 and given a protest letter detailing the involvement of a terror group based in his country. Pakistan chose denial as its response, with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif raising Kashmir in his speech at the United Nations.

That was the inflection point, when the idea of a military response began to crystallise.

Late on September 22, Modi, Parrikar and Doval were briefed by Director General of Military Operations Lt General Ranbir Singh on LoC strike options as well as the posture of the Pakistan army. Army chief General Dalbir Singh was present at this briefing in the War Room of the ministry of defence. By this time, Pakistan had activated all its radars along the LoC and its forces were on high alert.

After examining the options put up by Doval in consultation with the three service chiefs, the surgical strike option was chosen by September 23.

Once the decision had been taken, Doval, Army chief Gen. Dalbir Singh and other operational planners discarded their mobile phones. All communications were direct or through highly secured lines only. Constant monitoring of the Pakistani political leadership and army brass, including the Rawalpindi-based X Corps in charge of PoK as well as the Gilgit-based commander of the Northern Areas, was carried out. As the strike plan was hammered out, Modi chaired some of the meetings.

The Army chief tasked his Northern Army Commander Lt Gen DS Hooda to segregate special forces troops from the 1, 4 and 9 parachute at his disposal, and prepare for action. The army build-up began on September 24. Meanwhile, the National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO) programmed Indian satellites to monitor the target area using GPS coordinates and linkups as a result of which Delhi had real-time imagery of the strike through helmet-mounted cameras of Indian soldiers on D-day. Video footage of the entire action exists but has not been released to the public. Given that Pakistan had activated its radars across the LoC, insertion of special forces through helicopters was ruled out. Special forces squads with night-vision devices, Tavor 21 and AK-47 assault rifles, rocketpropelled grenades, shoulderfired missiles, Heckler and Koch pistols, high explosive grenades and plastic explosives crossed the LoC on foot. The teams were 30-strong each and had specific targets. While the corps commanders were getting their men ready, the planners in Delhi went below the radar. Starting September 26, Doval held three meetings with the three military chiefs, foreign secretary, two intelligence chiefs, NTRO chief and the DGMO. No uniforms were allowed at these meetings; unmarked cars were used to meet at discreet locations around Delhi to discuss the plan as well as possible Pakistani retaliation.

Operational planners had narrowed things down to eight contingencies. It comes as no surprise that evacuation of civilians living close to border in Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab started at 10 pm on September 27, an hour before Indian soldiers went across.

D-day began with Special Forces squads slipping across the LoC towards designated targets. The plan was such that teams with distant targets left early on September 27 evening so that all strikes would be coordinated. The instructions were that all teams would engage the terrorists simultaneously so that none could rescue another. Using mortar and machine-gun fire from the Indian side to pin Pakistani troops down, the soldiers of the special forces crawled to their targets without meeting any resistance. Sentries at the launchpads were neutralised by snipers before the troops went in and finished the job. Barring one soldier who stepped on a landmine, all teams returned to their bases by 9am on September 28. The surprise had been complete and there had hardly been any retaliatory fire. Even as the operation was on, Doval received a call from his US counterpart Susan Rice. Although the US later said that Rice had offered India help against terrorism, the Modi government has kept this conversation top secret.

Throughout the operation, Modi, Parrikar, Doval, the service chiefs, DGMO, intelligence chiefs, NTRO chief, Northern Army Commander and his two corps commanders were awake and in touch. After the troopers returned, the operational planners, led by Doval, met Modi and briefed him.

Six launchpads had been razed to the ground with Indian troopers gunning down 45 terrorists at various locations. Uri had been avenged.

After the operation, Modi called a meet of the Cabinet Committee on security, and DGMO Ranbir Singh called his Pakistani counterpart to inform him about the strike. Former prime minister Manmohan Singh was briefed by Modi after the CCS meet. Starting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Opposition leaders were briefed directly or at the all-party meeting held later the same day.