Last month, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had said his country had received “actionable intelligence” on the Pathankot perpetrators, and promised early action

Masood Azhar, the Jaish-e-Mohammad founder sought by India for the Pathankot airbase attack, has threatened retaliation if Pakistan shuts down terrorist groups operating against India.

“I have prepared an army that adores death. To uproot this army is not in the power of our enemies. God willing, this army will not let our enemies celebrate, nor occasion for anyone to miss my presence,” Azhar wrote in the Peshawar-based jihadi magazine al-Qalam’s issue dated January 26.

In his first comments on the fallout of the Pathankot attack, Azhar also assailed the Pakistani leadership: “Their actions against mosques, seminaries and jihad are dangerous for the integrity of the country itself.”

Last month, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had said his country had received “actionable intelligence” on the Pathankot perpetrators, and promised early action. But newspapers there reported Monday that investigators had been unable to locate the owners of five cellphone numbers used to coordinate the strike.

“The rulers of our country are sad that we have disturbed their friends,” Azhar wrote in the article, in an evident reference to Nawaz Sharif . “They wish to arise on the Day of Judgment to be judged as friends of (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi and (former Prime Minister) Atal Behari Vajpayee.”

Azhar claims that “acting on the orders of others, Pakistan’s rulers have reduced their own country into a heap of fire and explosive. Every single one of them comes, spreads fire and then escapes abroad”.

Said to have been held soon after the Pathankot attack in what Pakistan’s government describes as “protective custody”, Azhar has been charged by India with several major terrorist attacks, including the hijacking of an Indian Airlines flight from Kathmandu to Kandahar in 1999 and the attack on Parliament House in 2001.

And in his first published comments on his incarceration by Pakistan in 2002, when General Pervez Musharraf ordered him held to defuse a military build-up by India, Azhar said he can only be held at a time of “divine predestination”.

“Many, times I actually attacked and chased arrest, only for it to escape from my grasp,” he claimed.

“When arrest finally came, it did not leave me even at my own home. For eight months, arrest lived with me in my home, where I could see even my aging parents only twice a week. This was though I did not have any case registered against me in any of the police stations in entire Pakistan, and I had never even imagined, let alone planned, doing harm to my country,” he wrote.

“I got only one answer when I asked why I was in prison: ‘What can we do, we have world pressure for your arrest’”.

He urged his followers not to be afraid of incarceration: “Pervez Musharraf was fond of keeping me imprisoned, but he was also arrested and imprisoned. He continues to lead a life of quasi-imprisonment. It is akin to worship to have been arrested because of your service to Islam, and every Muslim should be mentally ready for it, because, all the Holy Prophets and holy Companions have faced imprisonment”.

In his years in Indian jails before his release in the 1999 Indian Airlines hostages-for-prisoners swap, Azhar said, he completed the fourth volume of an exegetical work on jihad.

The new issue of al-Qalam also contains an article on the Pathankot strike by Naved Masood Hashmi, a cleric well known in jihadi circles for a 1998 biography of slain al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden. “If Indian rulers do not agree to free the Kashmiri nation based on the United Nations resolutions… these attacks would surely continue,” he wrote.

– See more at: http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/if-i-am-held-my-army-wont-let-our-enemies-celebrate-says-jaish-chief-masood-azhar/?utm_source=inshorts&utm_medium=inshorts_full_article&utm_campaign=inshorts_full_article#sthash.s55GBbyl.dpuf

Chandigarh, January 31

The controversy over the exclusion of the Sikh Regiment from the Republic Day parade in Delhi refuses to settle down, with Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Sunday describing the episode as “sad and regrettable” in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and saying that the community was “hurt”.In his letter, Badal said “the absence of the Sikh regiment from the Republic Day parade was sad and regrettable”.Badal urged the Centre to issue necessary instructions and guidelines “to ensure that the Sikh Regiment is never kept out of the Republic Day parade in future”.“A widespread feeling of hurt and resentment (has been) caused by the non-inclusion of the Sikh Regiment in the Republic Day parade where French President Francois Hollande was the chief guest,” Badal said in the letter.According to reports, the Sikh Regiment, which had participated in the parade earlier, was excluded this time.“The exclusion of the Sikh Regiment from the parade would be regrettable at any time, but it was doubly so this year because of the presence of the French President as a special guest at the event. —IANS

Regret absence of Sikh regiment at R-Day parade: CM to Modi

A firing range at Akhnoor in Jammu division

Ravi Krishnan Khajuria,Tribune News Service,Jammu, February 10

The state Home Department has been awaiting a response to a proposal submitted by it to the Ministry of Defence a year ago for enhancing compensation package to people affected by field firing ranges across the state.On February 27 last year, the Home Department had submitted the proposal to the Ministry of Defence and, on February 7 this year, Governor NN Vohra had requested Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar for enhanced compensation. Jammu Divisional Commissioner Pawan Kotwal said the rates of compensation being given to the affected population were fixed almost three decades ago.“We have sent a proposal to the Centre suggesting enhanced rates relevant with the existing market rates. The affected people are getting paltry compensation,” he added.He said that on the days of firing, the Army, well in advance, asks the people living close to ranges to stay indoors to remain safe and sometimes they have to be dislocated, which affects their livelihood. State Home Secretary RK Goyal said the Centre’s response to the proposal was still awaited. The Defence Ministry has been asked to give compensation at a par with the market rates.On restrictions on movement and dislocation of local populace on days of firing, the Army has fixed Rs 8 (for the day) and Rs 12 (for the night) for males and females above 18 years. The Home Department has suggested hiking it to Rs 151 (for the day) and Rs 225 (for the night). The Home Department proposed Rs 2.50 lakh for deaths due to firing, Rs 2 lakh for 100 per cent disability, Rs 1.50 lakh for 50 per cent to 100 percent disability and Rs 1 lakh for disability below 50 per cent. The letter mentioned that to date the Army has not paid compensation or ex gratia for losses or injuries to human lives due to the firing practice.A compensation for livestock of the villagers killed due to firing practice has also been proposed. The letter also suggested compensation for crop loss, a joint survey of which should be conducted by the Revenue authorities with the Army unit concerned.The letter also contained objections of the people to renewal of firing ranges. The objections were based on displacement and restrictions imposed on movement of people on days of firing that affected their economic activities; deaths due to shells remaining unexploded and not cleared by the Army units after firing; damages to building and other structures due to tremors as a result of explosions; issues related to medical treatment of the injured and compensation for livestock and crop loss.The “Agenda for Alliance” of the PDP-BJP government had also wanted that monetary remuneration should be made by the Army at market rates.

Army jawan on LoC dies of cardiac arrest

Srinagar, February 10

An Army jawan collapsed and died due to cardiac arrest while patrolling the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir yesterday, a police official said here today.Naik Davinder Singh of 11 Kumaon Regiment collapsed while on patrol duty in the Keran sector of Kupwara district, the official said.He was evacuated to the military hospital at Drugmulla where he was declared brought dead by the doctors.Preliminary investigations have shown that Davinder Singh suffered a cardiac arrest, leading to his death.Meanwhile, police have started inquest proceedings in the case. — PTI

Ravi Krishnan Khajuria & Majid Jahangir

Tribune News Service,Jammu/ Srinagar, January 22

In the wake of intelligence inputs of possible attacks by Pakistani militants, the Army, Air Force and paramilitary forces have fortified their formations across Jammu and Kashmir ahead of Republic Day.Security has also been beefed up on the 198-km-long international border and Jammu-Pathankot national highway.A terror alert has been sounded across the Jammu region after the murder of a taxi driver at Kangra in Himachal Pradesh by three unidentified men, who escaped with the taxi. Additional nakas were laid on the Jammu-Punjab border and on the Dunera side of Basohli Bridge in Kathua district. “The CRPF this morning took control of border routes leading to garrison town of Samba. They have also set up random checkposts. The arrangement will remain in place till the Republic Day celebrations are over,” said an official source.In Samba, which has a brigade, the Army has intensified foot patrols while the BSF has laid ambushes at vulnerable stretches on the border. Samba, a major garrison town on the Jammu-Pathankot highway, has always remained on the terror radar of Pakistani militants and has been attacked in the past.“Samba garrison being in proximity of Indo-Pak International Border always runs the risk of getting attacked and post-Pathankot attack Samba Brigade is taking no chances. We have revisited our Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) that cannot be divulged,” an Army officer said. Intelligence inputs of possible fidayeen attacks and Peshwar varsity-like attacks has prompted security forces to go for a “near watertight” security grid.“All Army installations and units dotting the Jammu-Pathankot highway have been virtually declared out of bounds for civilians till Republic Day is over,” said an Army source.Consequently, the barricading has been strengthened at cantonments on the highway with additional concertina wires, he added.“We have also put up optimum deterrents in and around our cantonments because deterrents enable us to foil terror attacks. Our patrolling is on, ambushes are in place and CCTV surveillance has been enhanced,” he said.South of Jammu, the Army has asked its men to remain extra alert as there could be any mischief, including attacks by Pakistan’s Border Action Teams (BATs), an amalgam of Lashkar militants and Pakistani Army regulars.Security has also been heightened to unprecedented levels within and around the IAF Station in Jammu. In the summer capital of J&K too, the security forces are on their toes to ensure a peaceful Republic Day.This afternoon, security personnel in Kashmir went into a tizzy after an input that a suspected vehicle entered Srinagar from south Kashmir. A high alert was sounded and security men stepped up checking of vehicles across Srinagar, where security agencies have already tightened the security ahead of the Republic Day function.To avert any untoward incident, the J&K Police and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) have stepped up round-the-clock patrolling in the city to keep an eye on the situation.In Kashmir, the main R-Day celebrations will be held at the Bakshi Stadium in Srinagar and the Police and CRPF have already started sanitising the areas around the stadium.A police officer associated with the security around the Bakshi stadium said they had carried out many search operations around the stadium. “Various nakas have been placed on the roads leading to the stadium to ensure a peaceful R-Day,” said the officer. He said a thick three-tier security cover would be thrown around the stadium in the coming days.J&K Director General of Police K Rajendra Kumar had already asked for the security review of venues for the R-Day functions across the region. “The security of venues for the functions at different places needs to be reviewed by all agencies concerned and synergy should be ensured to make the celebrations more secure and successful,” Kumar had said during a security review meeting.Not only in Srinagar but reports from various districts of North and South Kashmir said the security have also been enhanced around the venues and important installations.

Security stepped up at Army installations

• Army installations and units dotting the Jammu-Pathankot highway have been virtually declared out of bounds for civilians till Republic Day is over
• Barricading has been strengthened at cantonments on the highway with additional concertina wires

Alert in Valley as suspected vehicle enters Srinagar

• Security personnel in Kashmir went into a tizzy on Friday afternoon after an input that a suspected vehicle entered Srinagar from south Kashmir. A high alert was sounded and security men stepped up checking of vehicles across Srinagar.

IS threatens to expand war in Kashmir

Tribune News Service

Jammu, January 22

The Islamic State (IS) has threatened to expand its war against India and ‘reconquer Kashmir for Muslims from ‘the cow-worshipping Hindus’.In an interview published in the 13th issue of ‘Dabiq’ allegedly given by Hafiz Saeed Khan, the emir of Khorasan (Pak-Afghan area), the IS propaganda magazine has labelled the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) as an apostate and claimed that ‘specific arrangements have been made to expand the caliphate in the region’.The Khorasan region historically extends from the present day Iran to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkmenistan and China.“It (Kashmir) had once been under the authority of Muslims along with the regions surrounding it. Afterwards, the secularist…the cow-worshiping Hindus and atheist Chinese conquered other nearby regions, as is the case in parts of Kashmir and Turkistan,” Saeed has reportedly said in the interview to the magazine.The news item referring to the interview has been carried out by several media outlets in India. This is the second time that the IS faction in the Af-Pak region has threatened to expand war in Kashmir and India.A few months ago, the group targeted the Pakistan army over exploiting various Islamic organisations on the issue of Kashmir for their personal interests.Though security agencies have so far ruled out any serious threat in Kashmir from the Islamic State, youths have been seen displaying the IS flags during protests in the Kashmir valley, worrying the security agencies and the state police.Security agencies also see this as an open threat and a challenge to the LeT and the Hizbul Mujahideen, operating in Kashmir and carrying out attacks against civilian and military targets since the eruption of insurgency in 1990.It could also fuel a sectarian conflict in Jammu and Kashmir as the IS follows an anti-Shia, Salafist ideology and has killed Shias and other ethnic groups in Syria and Iraq.

COUNTERING THREAT OF TERROR STRIKES ON R-DAY

Police hold meeting with Army, Air Force

PK Jaiswar,Tribune News Service,Amritsar, January 22

Following intelligence inputs regarding the suspected terror attacks in Punjab on Republic Day, the Punjab police have been on a high alert.The police are on their toes as the state-level function of Republic Day celebrations is being held in the holy city. A company of the Border Security Force (BSF) has already been provided to the city police while more companies of paramilitary forces are expected to arrive in the next couple of days. The police from other districts have been summoned to the city for security reasons.The security has been tightened after a taxi which was hired by three suspects in Kangra district in Himachal Pradesh went missing while the body of the driver was found from Kalta Bridge in Kangra. Three unidentified persons had hired the taxi from Pathankot. The Delhi police have issued an alert and posted the pictures of the three suspects on its social networking sites to find clues.According to the intelligence inputs, the Pakistan-based terrorists could strike at vital installations including railway stations and military installations on Republic Day.Following intelligence inputs, top-most cops have held a meeting with the Army authorities and officers of the IAF of the local air forcePolice Commissioner Jatinder Singh Aulakh confirmed the intelligence inputs regarding the terror threats which are doing the rounds. He said tight security had been maintained by the city police by holding regular nakas, carrying out checking drives and patrolling in and around the city. He said police officials of the neighbouring districts were also in close contact with the city police and all information pertaining to the security measures and alleged threats was being shared.He also confirmed the meeting with Army and Air Force officials, but did not divulge the details due to security concerns. It is learnt that security around the Army cantonments and the Air Force station and other vital institutions has been beefed up.The district administration and police officials today visited Guru Nanak Stadium where the state-level function would be held to overview the security arrangements. Besides Aulakh, among those visited the stadium included Deputy Commissioner Ravi Bhagat, ADC TPS Sandhu and ADCP Dhruman Nimbale.

Vijay Mohan,Tribune News Service,Chandigarh, February 9

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has, in a landmark judgment, ruled that a woman candidate cannot be permanently debarred from joining as a doctor in the Army Medical Corps (AMC) on the pretext that she had conceived during the selection process.The court order came on the petition of a woman doctor, who had wanted to join the Army as a Short Service Commission Officer, but was later denied the opportunity on the grounds that her pregnancy amounted to deterioration in health. The court ruled that denying appointment to the petitioner merely on account of her pregnancy was arbitrary and illegal.The petitioner was asked to join service in February 2014 after clearing all examinations and medical tests. Unlike other branches, married women till the age of 45 are eligible to join AMC and there is no training in a military academy. Selected candidates join a hospital closest to residence and are required to complete a basic in-service course of eight weeks within a flexible time period.However, between the period of her application and joining, the petitioner conceived and disclosed this fact on the date of joining after which she was not allowed to assume duties. Her candidature was cancelled and she was advised to undergo the entire selection process again in case she wanted to join AMC.Aggrieved, the petitioner moved the High Court in 2014, averring that pregnancy was not ‘deterioration in health’ but a mere incidence of marriage and womanhood. She pointed out that there would have been no problem had she not disclosed her pregnancy or had conceived the day after joining or had given birth before the joining date and that in paramilitary forces uniformed doctors were simply asked to join after childbirth in case any problem was envisaged due to pregnancy.The court directed the Army to offer appointment to the petitioner within a period of one month.

HC: Woman can’t be barred from joining AMC if she gets pregnant