PK Jaiswar

The Punjab border alongside Pakistan has witnessed an upward trend in the trafficking of sophisticated weapons and explosives apart from drugs, leaving the Punjab Police and various security and intelligence agencies in a tight spot.Despite taking measures to intercept the flying machines carrying drugs and weapons, the smuggling continued unabated even during the escalation of hostilities between the two neighbouring nations in the aftermath of the Pehalgam terror attack.Since January, 220 weapons, including Austria-made Glock and Turkey-made Zigana pistols, have been seized from Amritsar district alone, while the Border Security Force (BSF) seized 74 pistols from the entire Punjab border during the past six months. Forty pistols were also seized from Tarn Taran, it was learnt.

The Amritsar and Tarn Taran border belt is considered the favourite route for trafficking for drones used by the Pakistan-based state and non-state actors.

According to senior police officials, the increased trafficking has directly affected the drug consumption patterns in the border state, apart from aiding gun violence among youths, creating law and order and security concerns in the state.

A senior BSF official said there had been a considerable shift in the border strategy by Pakistan since the new ISI chief took over in September 2024. They are pushing arms and explosives more aggressively in order to destabilise India and aiding operatives of various Pakistan-based terror groups, he said. Also, the use of China-made drones has added a new dimension to the illicit trafficking from across the international border, he said.

“Since January, the pushing of arms into the Indian territory through drones from Pakistan has increased manifold. There has been an increase of around 400 per cent in the past six months compared to the corresponding period last year,” said the official.

Apart from 74 pistols, the BSF had neutralised 129 Chinese drones carrying drugs and weapons, 10.245 kg of RDX, IED and 12 hand grenades from the Punjab frontier.

The Punjab Police DIG (Border Range) Satinder Singh said this was an ever-going fight. “Definitely the upward trend of sneaking of arms and explosives is worrisome. But the BSF and Punjab Police have jointly foiled many nefarious attempts of Pak-based anti-national elements, leading to the regular seizures of weapons,” he said.

Another police official said the trend had shifted as notorious criminals were also “procuring” these weapons from Pakistan-based smugglers shifting from countrymade weapons procured from Madhya Pradesh, UP, Bihar or Maharashtra. A majority of these arms were duplicates, although with better functioning. “These weapons are much better than the countrymade weapons here, but not original as is believed,” he said.

About 20 companies had initially expressed interest in bidding for the SSLV, the first privatisation of its kind under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s policy drive to open up India’s space industry

By winning the bid to make the rocket, capable of carrying 500 kg payloads to low-Earth orbit, HAL will have the capability to independently build, own and commercialise SSLV launches.

Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd has won the bid to privately make India’s small satellite launch rockets, the country’s space regulator said on Friday, the government’s biggest step yet to open its fast-growing space industry to private players.

It was reported in February that three consortiums — Alpha Design Technologies, a unit of Adani Defence Systems and Technologies, state-backed Bharat Dynamics and HAL — were the finalists to acquire India’s Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) technology.

Fighter jet-maker HAL had applied independently, Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) said in a statement on Friday, without disclosing the deal value. It was reported earlier that HAL was expected to pay about 3 billion Indian rupees (about $35 million).

By winning the bid to make the rocket, capable of carrying 500 kg payloads to low-Earth orbit, HAL will have the capability to independently build, own and commercialise SSLV launches, said Pawan Goenka, the head of IN-SPACe.About 20 companies had initially expressed interest in bidding for the SSLV, the first privatisation of its kind under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s policy drive to open up India’s space industry.

The global low Earth orbit launch vehicle market was valued at $13.9 billion in 2023 and is estimated to grow to about $44 billion by 2032, according to Global Market Insights.

India, which accounts for only 2 per cent of the global space economy, is eyeing a fivefold expansion to $44 billion by the end of the decade.

Northern Army Commander Lieutenant General Pratik Sharma on Thursday visited operational logistics units and reviewed the transformation being undertaken to boost operational readiness in Jammu and Kashmir.

He commended the personnel for their high state of logistic readiness to sustain multi-domain operational demands.

“Lieutenant General Pratik Sharma, Army Commander Northern Command, visited an operational logistics unit, reviewing the operational and logistics transformation being undertaken with the vision of boosting operational readiness,” the Army’s Northern Command headquarters said on X.

The General Officer Commanding-in-Chief (GOC-in-C) commended the personnel for their high state of logistic readiness, automated functioning and capacity to sustain multi-domain operational demands. He emphasised the need for continued innovation to sustain operational superiority.

He emphasised the need for continued innovation to sustain operational superiority. “#ArmyCdrNC commended the personnel for their high state of logistic readiness, automated functioning, and capacity to sustain multi-domain operational demands,” said the post.

He also expressed confidence in the unit’s automated functioning and urged further integration of cutting-edge logistics solutions to bolster the Indian Army’s warfighting capabilities.

Israel’s action against Iran can only be assessed as being a dangerous and reckless act of aggression that poses danger to the region and the world

Manoj Joshi

ON March 26, US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard told a House committee that the American intelligence community “continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme leader Khomeini (sic) has not authorised the nuclear weapons program that he suspended in 2003.”

Yet on June 13, Israel launched what it claims was a “pre-emptive” attack to destroy Iran’s nuclear weapons capability. Israel’s action can only be assessed as being a dangerous and reckless act of aggression that poses danger to the region and the world. Iran does not have the most savoury regime running it; nor does Israel, and it most certainly does not have the right to attack Iran.

As he contemplates joining the war, US President Donald Trump has rudely brushed aside the US intelligence assessment and embraced the Israeli view that Iran had been very close to making a nuclear weapon when the war began.

Israel’s war aims are to destroy Iran’s nuclear capacity and effect regime change. Neither is an easy task. Last week, in the wake of the Israeli attacks, former Prime Minister Ehud Barak told Christiane Amanpour on CNN that Israel alone cannot delay the nuclear programme of Iran by a significant time period. “Probably several weeks… a month… Even the US cannot delay them by more than a few months,” he said.

Current assessments are that besides destroying Iran’s air defence system, Israel has severely damaged the principal nuclear enrichment facility at Natanz as well as the Isfahan Nuclear Technology Centre, while the Arak Nuclear Complex remains largely undamaged, as does the Parchin military complex which stores centrifuges and uranium. Israel has not targeted the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant over worries of nuclear radiation leaks.

Importantly, no significant damage is reported as yet to the deeply buried Fordow fuel enrichment plant, which is said to be invulnerable to conventional strikes. This facility is crucial because it can quickly enrich Iran’s stock of 60 per cent enriched uranium to 90 per cent required for one weapon in a week. Iran reportedly possesses 408.6 kg of enriched uranium as of May 2025 and estimates are that this could be sufficient to make nine nuclear weapons in the coming weeks if enriched further.

Fordow would need US involvement in the form of the massive ordnance air blast bomb (MOAB) that Israel does not possess. Besides, Iran has had two decades to spread out its programme and build other deeply buried ultra-secure sites such as the one in the Pickaxe mountain south of Natanz, which is deeper and better protected than the one in Fordow.

Kinetic means alone cannot destroy the Iranian programme. That would require a ground invasion. That is where the US role, which has so far been curious, comes in. The Israeli strikes came amidst US-Iran talks on building down the nuclear programme. After saying that the US would not be involved, President Trump now wants Iran to settle things on his terms — the principal demand being an “unconditional surrender” by Iran. Looking back, one wonders whether the war on Iran was always a US-Israeli venture.

American involvement could widen the war and trigger Iranian missile attacks on its facilities in the Persian Gulf region in Qatar, Bahrain, UAE, Iraq and Syria, in addition to facilities in Saudi Arabia, Oman and Kuwait. A shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz, through which around 25 per cent of the world’s oil is shipped, could see an escalation of oil prices beyond $100 a barrel, triggering global inflation.

The US needs to weigh its options carefully. Destroying Iran’s facilities and effecting regime change are one thing. Replacing it with a democratic setup quite another. Recall America’s disastrous experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan that have roiled the region for the past 25 years. Having spent tens of trillions of dollars on wars in the region, the US is now on the brink of yet another, this time with a larger and better organised country.

This is a fraught moment. The demand for unconditional surrender and regime change could push Iran to actually fabricate a nuclear weapon. Israel has telegraphed its intentions for so long that Iran has had sufficient time to establish other secret facilities for its military programme. A nuclear breakout could have Israel and the US resorting to nuclear weapons strikes to prevent Iranian deployment. Any use of nuclear weapons would be catastrophic for the region and the world.

The primary trigger for the Iranian nuclear weapons programme has not been Israel. It was the 1980-1988 war following the invasion of the country by Iraq, an action that was aided by the US. Iraq’s use of chemical weapons and missile attacks on Iranian cities found little international reaction. So from the mid-1980s, Iran began its military nuclear programme.

Iran’s strategy was to develop its nuclear cycle — mining, processing and enriching uranium — to deter adversaries. But the fate of neighbouring Iraq following the US invasion in 2003 hardened the Iranian conviction that there would be no guarantee for its security in the absence of nuclear weapons. The subsequent experience of North Korea only deepened this perception.

Iran is a resource-rich country of over 90 million people, some two-thirds the size of India. It has a strong sense of history and nationhood. As is in the case of Iraq, the US and Israel could well succeed in wreaking a lot of destruction on the country and possibly even effecting regime change, but you can be sure that this will not be the end of the story.

Manoj Joshi is Distinguished Fellow, Observer Research Foundation, Delhi.

China has won over these countries by providing timely financial, infrastructural and other material support as required by them.

Gurbachan Jagat

TO subdue an enemy without fighting is the acme of skill — Sun Tzu, the famous Chinese General, said this around 500 BC; it holds good today as well. The Chinese have been good students of their old military strategist, as can be seen in their ‘String of Pearls’ geopolitical strategy vis-a-vis the Indian sub-continent and the Indian Ocean through which a large percentage of global shipments pass.

They have built ports in Gwadar (Pakistan), Hambantota (Sri Lanka), Kyaukpyu (Myanmar) and Djibouti. When tied with their Belt and Road initiative, their domination of the region and ability to project Chinese trade and military strength is apparent. Their economy grew at 9 per cent from 1978 to 2005, propelling them from being one of the poorest countries to the second-largest economy in the world.

At the same time, a long-term geopolitical strategy was also put into motion. These ports and other infrastructure have been decades in the making. Today, while observing the political map of the sub-continent, one can’t avoid seeing the increasingly isolated environment that we find ourselves in. The entire northwestern border with Pakistan is hostile; to the northeast, China dominates the canvas, with a hostile Bangladesh, a neutral Nepal, rogue Myanmar and a fragile Bhutan. To the south, Sri Lanka finds itself increasingly under Chinese influence. The Tamil-Sinhalese conflict over the years, followed by a misguided IPKF operation, eroded a lot of trust. Nothing much has been done in the following decades to repair this relationship. Maldives, an old ally, barely tolerates us today. We have no meaningful trade agreement with Southeast Asia, so where do we stand?

The world is caught up in a whirlpool of extreme violence and there are so many more flashpoints which can only lead us to further violence. Three years ago, when war erupted in Ukraine, our Prime Minister gave a call to shed violence — “this is not an era of war” found resonance around the globe. However, since then, the world seems irrevocably drawn towards the vortex of a cataclysmic denouement. Before coming to the catastrophe taking place in the Middle East and Ukraine, let us first see how we are placed in today’s scenario.

It is true that we have almost never sought war, but when it has come calling at our door, we have always stepped up and defended ourselves. However, the important thing is to deflect war from our borders before it starts to take a toll. For this, deft diplomacy is called for, backed with a very strong defence force. We should be proactive first in our neighbourhood and with our friends around us. We seem to be having hardly any friends in our vicinity. This is not an overnight development but the result of painstaking policy initiatives taken by China in the absence of any meaningful effort by us. Whereas we have sought to live in self-denial, China has played deft hardball and won over these countries by providing timely financial, infrastructural and other material support as required by them. Now they have the capacity to disturb our borders and border states, whether it’s the northeast or northwest. An active diplomatic mission with strategic goals could have avoided this scenario.

In Kashmir, where our land was stained by Pakistani agencies in their quest for bloodlust, we stood firm, and our political leadership and armed forces were resolute and decisive in their response. The result of proactive measures was that after four days, the enemy sued for peace, and we generously accepted their plea, although there was a strong lobby in favour of more stringent action. US President Trump did claim credit for the ceasefire, but our PM has categorically told him that India has never and will never accept third-party mediation.

The US, its President and military leadership have praised Pakistan for its so-called help in containing terrorism. Its military spokesperson conveyed this in very laudatory terms before the US Senate Armed Forces Committee. And Trump hosted the Pakistani Army Chief at the White House on Wednesday.

In the recent cross-border skirmish, the Chinese, of course, were with the Pakistanis, the Russians not as effusive in their support to us as before and the American tone and tenor were disparaging. Compare this with the Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Cooperation signed between India and the Soviet Union in 1971. The US deployed the 7th Fleet, while the UK sent a carrier group against us. However, the Soviets countered the pincer move with a deployment of nuclear submarines and destroyer groups. The US and the UK retreated, and the rest is history. One might attribute this to Cold War dynamics, but the fact is that when we needed an ally, we had one.

For long, Indian soft power has helped the country punch way above its weight. India was one of the key organisers of the Bandung Conference (1955) on Asian-African cooperation; India and other NAM countries took the initiative to foster close relationships with Africa, with Nehru naming it a ‘sister’ continent. Since then, subsequent governments kept the effort going in developing closer ties — did something go amiss recently that no one rallied to our cause? Nepal and especially the Nepalese army have had an umbilical relationship with us, with many of their generals having been trained at the NDA. The Indian Gurkha regiment regularly recruited Nepalese citizens — why did this stop? From being the chief supporters and architects of the independence of Bangladesh, why do we find ourselves on the opposite side today?

Some Western countries did try to play fair; however, the disquieting thing was the silence of our neighbours.

The conflict in the Middle East threatens to engulf the entire region, with the belligerents bent upon a Machiavellian desire to obliterate the other. Increasingly, technology in the form of drones and missiles gives it an apocalyptic dimension. We see eerie images of the night sky lighting up with the fire trails of missiles and hear haunting sounds of air raid sirens. In Europe, war rages on between Russia supported by its allies and Ukraine backed by NATO. Are there deeper dimensions to these regional wars — of course.

The US hegemony, both economic and military, is being challenged by a combined Russia and China. The old order of NATO, which held strong in the 20th century, is weakened by an increasingly nationalistic America. There is a need for us to be proactive in the formulation and execution of our foreign policy. We must win over our neighbourhood (we cannot choose our neighbours) through shared diplomatic and economic goals.

On the international scene, maintaining silence or being seemingly neutral are not always good options. Sometimes, it is wise to show your hand while keeping an ace up your sleeve. Whenever the question of a ceasefire has come up in the UN regarding the Ukraine war, we have abstained. Similarly, in respect of Gaza, we have abstained. The result is neither the West is happy with us nor Russia. It is time to make amends and develop strong friendships as well as strong deterrence.

Gurbachan Jagat is former Governor, Manipur and ex-DGP, J&K.

Says sought Saudi, US intervention after India strikes Pakistani air bases

Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar has confirmed that Pakistan had requested India for the ceasefire.

India had struck two major Pakistani air bases, Nur Khan in Rawalpindi and Shorkot (PAF Base Rafiqui) in Punjab, during the current skirmish between India and Pakistan.

The two countries were on the brink of a full-fledged war following Opeartion Sindoor which India launched following the Pahalgam terror attack.

Dar revealed that following the attack, Pakistan sought US and Saudi intervention to de-escalate tensions.

“…unfortunately, India once again launched missile strikes at 2:30 am. They attacked the Nur Khan air base and Shorkot air base… Within 45 minutes, Saudi Prince Faisal called me. He said he had just then learnt about my conversation with (US Secretary of State) Marco Rubio. He asked if he was authorised to talk to (India’s External Affairs Minister) S Jaishankar and convey that we are ready if they (India) stop. I said yes, brother, you can. He then called me back, saying he had conveyed the same to Jaishankar,” Dar said during a TV interview.

Videos circulating online show explosions at the Nur Khan base, which houses sensitive military and VIP assets.

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त्तरी कश्मीर के बारामूला के इमरान अहमद ने देहरादून में आईएमए में अफसर की वर्दी पहनी। वह पहले सेना में राइफलमैन थे। स्पेशल कमीशंड ऑफिसर स्कीम के तहत अब लेफ्टिनेंट बन गए हैं। उन्होंने 2017 में सेना ज्वाइन की थी। कंपनी कमांडर लेफ्टिनेंट नी…

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What a Shameful act of Chandigarh Police they want to recrate the thrashing scene at Patiala with help of drone ,Called Bath family members and made them wait of hours in summer heat without taking permission from any authority but fails to call the 4 culprit inspectors of Punjab police .No one yet arrested even after 3 months .High court gave 4 months to submit the report .

Smart Act by ADEO to save his skin :Open Pdf File below by clicking

ADEO Letter to SHO Police Station Rajouri.Pdf

Kulwant Kaur finished second

Brig Daljit Singh Tuthral President Panchkula Haryana Unit Sanjha Morcha on extreme right

Roop Aulakh won the ladies’ category event with a score of 62 during the Par 3 Masters Golf Tournament at the Chandigarh Golf Club here today. Kulwant Kaur finished second with a score of 63.

In the above 75 years (9-hole), AK Batta (27) and Brig DS Thukral (28) won the first two positions, and in the men’s (18-hole), MP Singh (46) won first position and Saahir Singh (51) finished second.

SS Sodhi won the Hole-in-One event of gthe tournament, while Dr Narinder Arora won the nearest to the pin (18-hole) and Nihaal Cheema won the same in the 9-hole event.