Terror worst human rights violation,’ India replies to Sharif diatribe

WASHINGTON/NEW DELHI: India has called Pakistan a “terrorist state” that hosts “the Ivy League of terrorism” while responding to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ’s speech at the UN general assembly that raked up the Kashmir issue and sought a fact-finding mission into alleged brutalities.

The response marked the latest round in a war of words that has escalated after Sunday’s terror attack on an army camp in Uri that killed 18 soldiers. India also said the onus is now on Pakistan to act against terrorist groups engaging in cross-border attacks while threatening to withdraw or downgrade the most-favoured nation status granted in 1996.

During his nearly 20-minute speech on Wednesday, Sharif described the unrest in Kashmir as an “indigenous uprising” and an “intifada” (uprising) and accused India of “brutal suppression” and “gross and systematic violations of human rights”. He also referred to militant commander Burhan Wani, whose killing sparked the unrest, as a “young leader murdered by Indian forces”.

India hit back in a right-ofreply statement, delivered by Eenam Gambhir, first secretary in India’s permanent mission to the UN, who started by saying: “The worst violation of human rights is terrorism. When practiced as an instrument of state policy it is a war crime.

“What my country and our other neighbours are facing today is Pakistan’s long-standing policy of sponsoring terrorism, the consequences of which have spread well beyond our region.”

Recalling the US raid that killed Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, she said, “The land of Taxila, one of the greatest learning centres of ancient times, is now host to the Ivy League of terrorism.” She added Pakistan is a “terrorist state” that channels billions of dollars to training and backing terror groups used as “militant proxies against it neighbours”.

Minister of state for external affairs MJ Akbar referred to Sharif ’s description of Wani and told reporters, “We heard the glorification of a terrorist. Wani is a declared commander of Hizbul (Mujahideen), widely acknowledged as a terror group. It is shocking that a leader of a nation can glorify a self-advertised terrorist at such a forum. This is self-incrimination by the Pakistan PM.”

Pakistan has been linked to some of the worst terrorists attacks, and attempts, in the US in recent years — the Times Square bombing attempt in 2010, the San Bernardino shootings in 2015, in which 14 people died, and one over the past weekend. Ahmad Khan Rahami, the New York-New Jersey bombings suspect, spent a lot of time in Pakistan, where he married a local woman.

Jalandhar, September 12

While applauding the three service chiefs for declining the recommendations of the 7th pay commission, the Ex- Servicemen Movement (Jantar Mantra), Punjab, today said the entire community of the ex-servicemen has supported their claim to be at par with their civilian counterparts.“The government is playing with the security of nation by demoralising the Army and its serving soldiers. The government should rectify its mistakes soon,” said Lt Col babir Singh,  Punjab. —TNS

There has been no explanation from the White House so far.

Washington, October 5

More than 50,000 new signatures have been added to the final count of the White House petition seeking to designate Pakistan “a state sponsor of terrorism”, making it the most popular US petition so far.

The petition, “We the people ask the administration to declare Pakistan, State Sponsor of Terrorism (HR 6069)”, was archived by the White House on Monday with 613,830 signatures.

By Tuesday afternoon, the number of signatures on the petition had increased to 6,65,769, a jump of 51,939 signs.

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This is believed to be the most popular White House petition so far as the highest number of signatures received by any White House petition so far had not crossed 3,50,000.

There has been no explanation from the White House so far.

However, it is possible that these signatures, which were signed before the petition was closed by the White House, were added to the final tally after being duly verified.

In that case, the chances of a fraud being committed appear unlikely.

Another possibility could be that the petition was flooded with signatures. And since the petition had already reached the mandatory threshold of 1,00,000 to earn a response from the Obama administration, a decision could have been taken to archive it stop accepting any new signature.

The White House is expected to have an official response to the petition within stipulated 60 days.

Meanwhile, the White House is still looking for signatures that did not meet the criteria for the petition which was created on September 21 by someone who identified himself with initials R G, after Congress man Ted Poe and Dana Rohrabacher introduced a Bill in the US House of Representative, seeking to designate Pakistan as a “State Sponsor of Terrorism”.

It met the threshold of 1,00,000 signatures in less than a week. With various groups both inside and outside the US actively campaigning on the social media for people to support the petition, the signature count increased at a fast pace, sometimes more than 1,00,000 signatures in less than 24 hours.

In the process, it became the first-ever petition to cross half-a-million mark. A day after it was closed for signature, the final count as of now stands at 6,65,769 signatures.

While there is no official ranking of popular petitions, the one seeking “charges against the 47 US Senators in violation of the Logan Act in attempting to undermine a nuclear agreement” in April 2015 appears to be the second most popular petition with 3,20,000 signatures.

According to a website – WHpetitions.info – that keeps track of unanswered petitions, so far 323 White House petitions have met their signature thresholds.

The White House has responded to 318 of them (98 per cent) with an average response time of 117 days. Average waiting time so far for five unanswered petitions is 36 days. This does not include the latest petition.

Baloch-Americans have also launched their own petition on “Free Balochistan from Pakistan’s illegal occupation”. — PTI

Navy Chief Admiral Sunil Lanba

New Delhi, August 29

Leak of information related to Scorpene submarine is being viewed “very seriously”, but it is “not a matter of much worry”, Navy Chief Admiral Sunil Lanba said on Monday in his first comment after over 22,000 pages of data detailing the vessel’s capabilities became public.

“Any leak of information is viewed very seriously. We have viewed the leak of Scorpene data very seriously, and we have asked (French firm) DCNS to launch an urgent investigation into this,” the Navy Chief said here.

He noted that the Defence Ministry has set up a high-level committee to investigate the matter.

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“Based on the report of the committee, we will see what mitigation measures need to be taken,” he said.

Asked how serious a concern the leak was, the Navy Chief said, “This is not a matter of much worry. The committee is analysing and they will see what data has been compromised and what mitigation steps have to be taken.”

The high-level committee is expected to submit a detailed report to Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar by September 20.

Over 22,000 pages of top secret data on the capabilities of six highly advanced submarines being built for the Navy in Mumbai in collaboration with French company DCNS have been leaked. — PTI

STRATEGIC EDGE: India must formulate a concrete counter-terrorism policy.

AS someone who has tried to secure Jammu and Kashmir while serving in India’s internal security apparatus and handled the affairs of the State from Delhi for almost a decade, I was shocked and pained to learn from the electronic media that a fidayeen attack on our Army post in Uri before the crack of dawn had killed 18 of our jawans. More shocking because the incident has come so soon after a similar attack on a sensitive Air Force base in Pathankot, and after a pinpointed intelligence input that a group of seven armed terrorists had infiltrated from the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and were hiding to launch an attack on a military base in Uri. Reactions to the attack on our Army post aired in the electronic media were to say the least, disappointing. Political leaders in one voice were blaming Pakistan, dubbing it a “terrorist state”, an act of “cowardice”, etc. and assuring us that “the culprits shall not be allowed to go unpunished”. Leaders of a few opposition parties began fishing in troubled waters and blaming Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the attack! Not very convincing.That Pakistan’s ISI will stop arming, training and infiltrating jihadi terrorists into our country is wishful thinking. That is not happening. The Pakistan army, which wields real power in its country, has a vested interest in keeping Kashmir on the boil. If peace returns to Jammu and Kashmir, the Pakistan army runs the risk of being ordered back to the barracks and lose all the perks it is enjoying at present. So let us be realistic in our objectives, and find solutions to our security needs ourselves.Speculations are rife today in the print and electronic media about retaliatory action to send out a clear message to Pakistan that enough is enough. We will not take this anymore. It brings along a feeling of déjà vu — similar meetings at the highest levels in the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Prime Minister’s Office were held after the Mumbai terrorist attacks, and no workable retaliatory action against Pakistan could be arrived at then, or is likely to emerge now.I have another question for our political leadership, when are we going to stop blaming our neighbour and exercise our right to defend our sovereignty with all our might? I am not suggesting a military attack against Pakistan. Knowing that the nuclear button across the border is in the hands of Pakistan army generals with fanatical and insane Islamic fanatics breathing down their necks, and not the democratically elected leaders — as is in India — could well cause a major catastrophe. But why not bleed them, the way that they are bleeding us? There are masters of the game — past and present — in our security establishment who know what needs to be done in this situation and how. Let the political leadership at the highest level give them the go-ahead without making public announcements. There is no time to lose. The time to act on this strategy has come. It is now.Another worrisome issue thrown up by the Uri attack is lack of adequate fortification of a sensitive defence post. A combination of high-technology barriers manned by a trained and alert manpower should have prevented the two-point intrusions by a heavily armed terrorist group at the border; and inside the Army camp for sure. The Uri Army base is a very commanding high-ground strategic location, with a bird’s-eye view of the contiguous Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. This strategic advantage to us came via the Simla Agreement after the India-Pakistan war of 1965. It was my favourite border post to visit while serving in the Kashmir Valley way back, because of the scenic drive in a Jonga along the winding hill road with the Jhelum flowing on one side and a wooden piped canal on the other — an engineering marvel built long ago in the times of Maharaja Hari Singh. My visits to Uri after meetings with the Army and other agencies’ representatives and our own Post I/C were always very satisfying. Appealing to the international community to declare Pakistan as a state sponsor of terrorism, as we are doing now, is also not going to help, as each country is riddled by its own set of problems, and may not have the time to take into account our problem. We can, at best, expect condemnations and moral support from the comity of nations, but little beyond that. Let us face the fact that we are one of the most highly threatened countries in terms of jihadi terrorism, and perhaps the least prepped or willing to learn from past attacks. It is time to change that truth.— The writer is a former Secretary (Internal Security), MHA

The dropped fuel tank

Ajay Banerjee
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, August 29
A minor fire broke out on the runway of the Indian Naval Station, Dega, Visakhapatnam, on Monday when a fuel drop tank of a MIG-29K fighter jet got jettisoned accidentally.
The MIG was taking off on a routine training sortie.The ground support staff quickly doused the fire. No one was injured and no major damage was suffered by the aircraft or the runway.

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The incident is being investigated.After a fuel tank got detached while taking off on the runway, the pilot was told to jettison the second fuel tank at sea. Due to malfunctioning of the system, this did not happen and when the aircraft was coming back for landing, the second fuel tank jettisoned on its own. It fell in the parking lot of the local CISF base.

New Delhi is warming up to the UAE at a time when Islamabad has earned the wrath of many Arab states, especially the Emirates

When Narendra Modi visited Abu Dhabi and Dubai last summer, the Pakistani daily Dawn wondered if the Indian prime minister had “stepped into the recent breach between Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates over Islamabad’s refusal to actively join the Yemen war?” The need for the question-mark was removed this week, with the announcement that Abu Dhabi’s crown prince, Mohamed bin Zayed al Nahyan, will be the guest of honour at India’s next Republic Day celebrations

REUTERSCrown Prince of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al Nahyan waves to Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Rashtrapati Bhavan, February 11

There are plenty of reasons for Modi to make Sheikh Mohamed his chief guest, not least the $60 billion in IndoUAE trade, and the 2.3 million Indians who live and work in the Emirates. But the timing of the announcement made it especially piquant for Pakistan, for it came in the middle of New Delhi’s campaign to isolate Islamabad diplomatically in the aftermath of the Uri attacks.

Islamabad should have seen this coming. On his August, 2015 trip to the UAE, Modi made pointed barbs at Islamabad during his public speeches, eliciting no reproach from his hosts. Earlier that year, Pakistan had earned the wrath of several Arab states, including the UAE, when it refused to join a coalition led by Saudi Arabia in an assault on Yemen, where Iran-backed Shia militias known as the Houthis had toppled a Saudi-friendly government. The UAE was especially blunt in its expression of displeasure. Minister of state for foreign affairs Anwar Mohammed Gargash rounded on Islamabad for its “vague and contradictory stand”, and warned Pakistan would pay a “heavy price”.

In the language of diplomatic politesse, such words are the equivalent of schoolyard curses, but Gargash had even harsher invective to deliver. He suggested Islamabad cared more for Iran than for the Arab states: This, in the context of the Sunni-Shia conflagration across West Asia, came within a whisker of accusing Pakistan of apostasy, a heinous and contemptible crime in Islam.

Pakistan was right to stay out of the war on Yemen, which continues to this day, bringing ever more destruction to the Arab world’s poorest nation and still more dishonour to its richest. Although Islamabad does little to discourage the persecution of the Shia (and other minorities) within Pakistan, it cannot, for many reasons, afford to participate in the wider sectarian conflict. Having long been assured that their military was busy protecting them from the designs of India, and the depredations of internal enemies, like Baloch separatists and Pashtun terrorists, ordinary Pakistanis showed no interest in sending their troops to fight for a dubious Arab cause.

Even so, saying “No” can’t have been easy for Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, or for army chief Raheel Sharif. The Arab states are Pakistan’s principal economic benefactors, as well as a diplomatic bulwark against India. The UAE is one of Pakistan’s largest donors of aid, both humanitarian and economic, and its largest trade partner. Around 1.8 million Pakistanis live in the Emirates. The Arab states also bankroll Raheel’s troops, and helped underwrite Islamabad’s nuclear programme. In return, they have long regarded the Pakistani military as theirs to summon.

It is hard to know if the Pakistani military would have swung the conflict in Yemen decisively in favour of the Saudi coalition, which has proved singularly incompetent, despite overwhelming superiority in arms. Earlier this summer, Gargash announced the UAE was pulling most of its forces out of Yemen, citing the death of 80 of its soldiers — a large number for such a small country. (The war continues to exact a toll, however: Over the weekend, a UAE vessel was sunk by Yemeni rebels. They claim it was a warship, the UAE says it was delivering aid, and the US says it belonged to a dredging company.) For a nation that takes pride in its ability to buy the world’s best war weaponry to be forced into a withdrawal by a rag-tag band of rebels was an utter humiliation, and many Emiratis must wonder if they may have been spared the ignominy if Pakistan had joined the fight.

Since Gargash’s outburst last year, Islamabad has tried desperately to make nice with the Arab states, and especially with the UAE. But its efforts have mostly been in the shape of words, including a speech from Nawaz Sharif to the effect that Pakistan “does not abandon friends and strategic partners”. This has gone down like a lead balloon in the Emirates. On a trip the Dubai earlier this year, practically everyone I met were still asking why Pakistan was sitting out on the war.

Unable to do anything substantive to mend relations, the Pakistani leadership will have squirmed at Modi’s announcement of a “strategic partnership” between India and the UAE during his visit. Their discomfiture will have been the more acute for hearing that the India-UAE joint statement called “on all states to reject and abandon the use of terrorism against other countries, dismantle terrorism infrastructures where they exist, and bring perpetrators of terrorism to justice”. Subtle, it was not. With Sheikh Mohamed’s participation in India’s Republic Day now confirmed, there’s additional pressure on Pakistan’s leaders — political and military alike — to get back into the UAE’s good books. There’s little prospect that the Pakistani military will be deployed in Yemen, and even if that were to happen it would earn Islamabad few brownie points with the Emiratis, since they’ve themselves all but abandoned the battlefield. Nor are there any meaningful economic inducements that Pakistan can offer in recompense: The UAE already enjoys unrestricted access to the Pakistani market.

It’s a good thing that Pakistan’s leadership has had much recent practice in squirming uncomfortably. They will be doing a lot of it on January 26.

NEW DELHI: The Centre on Wednesday told the Delhi High Court that it has extended by six months the term of the one member judicial commission on OROP which has commenced public hearings on grievances of ex-servicemen.

The submission was made by the government before a bench of justices Badar Durrez Ahmed and Ashutosh Kumar which was hearing a PIL for public hearing of ex-servicemen’s grievances as well as extension of the term of the commission, headed by Justice (retired) L Narasimha Reddy. Central government standing counsel Anurag Ahluwalia told the court that the first public hearing was held at Chandigarh on Tuesday and would be held at various other places across the country, ending on September 21. He said the hearing in Delhi would be held on August 19, after which the petitioner’s lawyer, Satya Ranjan Swain, said details of the time and venue of the hearing have not been disclosed.

Governor NN Vohra with Lt Gen SK Dua, GOC of the 15 Corps, in Srinagar on Monday.

Srinagar, September 19

Lt Gen SK Dua, General Officer Commanding of the 15 Corps, met Governor NN Vohra at Raj Bhawan here today and briefed him about the Sunday terror attack on an Army base in Uri.An official statement said the Governor and the Corps Commander discussed various important issues relating to the internal security management and the need for stringent enforcement of counter-infiltration and counter-terrorism grids along the Line of Control.—TNS

Chinese vessels are seen around Mischief Reef in the Spratly Islands of the South China Sea. Reuters file photo

Beijing, August 17

Hailing India for keeping “neutral stand” over the South China Sea issue despite pressure from the US and Japan, state-run Chinese media said on Wednesday that the relationship between India and China had been developing smoothly despite contradictions and frictions.

“When it comes to security, after the final award of the South China Sea arbitration was announced, the Indian Government has kept a neutral stance despite the pressure from Washington and Tokyo,” an article in the state-run Global Times said.

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Calling for “solid step forward” to improve relations, the article said “admittedly, there are some contradictions and frictions between China and India, but the overall bilateral relations have been developing smoothly”.

It also criticised the Indian media for “going too far” to blame China for blocking India’s membership in the Nuclear Suppliers Group and linking last week’s Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s visit to India to the South China Sea issue.

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“Indian media has spared no effort in linking Wang’s visit to the South China Sea issue and the country’s failure in joining the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG),” it said.

“Regarding the NSG case, Indian media has gone too far, for it is not at all a problem between Beijing and New Delhi. It was the US, not China, who made the relevant rules for NSG membership, and India failed to meet the criteria of entering the club. A dozen NSG members are now opposing India’s bid, thus, it does not make sense for Indian media to point an accusing finger at China,” it said.

“The two nations may have discussed the issue during Wang’s visit, and it is possible for both sides to clarify their own ideas, stances and policies over the matter. But the conjecture that Wang was trying to win India’s support over the South China Sea by helping New Delhi with the NSG membership doesn’t make sense at all,” it said.

This is the second article in as many days by the daily to criticise Indian media.

On August 15, another article blamed the Indian press for “stirring up negative sentiments” against China by highlighting the divergences in the bilateral ties.

“During the Wang’s visit the two sides may have also discussed how to further promote a closer partnership, which was raised during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit,” the article said.

“For the moment, when we talk about Sino-India ties, we tend to use the phrase ‘relations are generally stable without major conflicts’. Yet this should not be the highest expectation we hold for the relationship,” it said.

“Beijing and New Delhi have raised hopes for economic and trade cooperation, but turning them into reality requires wider consensus and more consultations,” it said.

Acknowledging problems in the bilateral collaboration on economic and trade issues which “used to be one of the most positive parts of the bilateral relations, it said “joint works in this regard have not been going smoothly in recent years”.

Last month, an arbitration court in The Hague ruled that China had no historic title over the South China Sea and had breached the Philippines’ sovereign rights there. The decision infuriated Beijing, which dismissed the court’s authority. Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also have counter claims.  China claims almost all of the South China Sea, through which trade of $5 trillion in global trade passes every year. — Agencies