Army chief Rawat says 6-10 Pak soldiers killed in retaliatory firing

The video grab of a target destroyed in Indian Army firing in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in Neelam Valley on Sunday. PTI

New Delhi, DHNS

Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, November 2

Contemporary military and strategic issues like the Balakot air strikes and its impact, abrogation of Article 370 and the situation in Afghanistan are among the topics that will feature in the third edition of the Military Literature Festival (MLF), scheduled to be held at Chandigarh from December 13-15.

The event will be inaugurated by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. At least two recently retired service chiefs, Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa and Admiral Sunil Lanba, would be speaking at the MLF, Punjab government sources said. The festival is being organised by the Punjab Government and the Army’s Western Command.

While the former Air Chief is expected to deliberate on the strikes carried out by the IAF on terrorist camps at Balakot in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir earlier this year, a British historian of the Pakistan Air Force is expected to gives out perspective from the other side.

Congress politician and Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, BJP national general secretary Ram Madhav and former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Omar Abdullah are among those who have been approached to speak on Kashmir-related issues such as Article 370, terrorism and economic revival.

Two notable sessions this year are on the impact and implications of jingoism and hyper-nationalism and on clandestine use of special e-tools such as Pegasus by intelligence agencies to infiltrate electronic gadgets to target individuals and garner information as part of cyber warfare operations and covert surveillance.

A total of 23 sessions on geopolitics, strategic issues, contemporary military thinking, foreign relations, history and past operations, future trends in warfare, internal security, intelligence and literature would be held during the three days that would see participation by serving and retired armed forces officers, diplomats, intelligence community, academia, security experts, and political leaders.

As a run-up to the MLF, a series of events such as shotgun shooting, golf and marathon  will be organsied in November and December.

To have 23 sessions on Geopolitics

• The Military Literature Festival is scheduled to be heldat Chandigarh from December 13 to 15. A total of 23sessions on geopolitics will be held during the three days
• Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa (retd) and Admiral Sunil Lanba (retd) will be speaking at the literature fest

Sandeep Dikshit

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 18

Pakistan today managed to ward off relegation to a global blacklist for its continued inability to combat money-laundering and terror-financing. Though the anti-terrorist financing watchdog, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), retained it on the grey list, along with 11 more countries, its misdemeanours were grave enough to merit a four-month grace period that will end in February next year. The FATF plenary in Paris gave Pakistan time till February to implement all action points to check money-laundering and terror-financing though it acknowledged that there had been some signs of visible progress to reduce terror-financing risks.

Among other jurisdictions with strategic deficiencies on the grey list were Sri Lanka, Mongolia, Iceland, Ghana, Syria, Yemen and Zimbabwe.

Sri Lanka, Ethiopia and Tunisia were excluded from the group that required monitoring in which Pakistan’s indictment was the most severe. A compliance report submitted to the FATF just before the plenary had ended any eventuality of Pakistan returning to the financial mainstream. But there was great interest whether India would manage to push it on the blacklist that currently has Iran and North Korea.

Pakistan PM Imran Khan had recently accused India of conspiring to trap his country at a time when he was trying to build bridges with PM Narendra Modi. National Security Adviser Ajit Doval had on Tuesday said the biggest pressure on Pakistan to check terror-financing was due to the proceedings at the FATF.

Recent changes had meant that Pakistan had a more favourable playing field at the FATF plenary this year. China had become chairman and close friend Saudi Arabia recently joined the body. India’s spat with Malaysia and Turkey over Kashmir had made it a foregone conclusion that they would be among the minimum of three countries required at the FATF to block

an adverse outcome

for Pakistan.

“The FATF strongly urges Pakistan to swiftly complete its full action plan by February 2020. Otherwise, should significant and sustainable progress not be made across the full range of its action plan by the next plenary, the FATF will take action,’’  read a statement.

“Since June 2018, when Pakistan made a high-level political commitment to work with the FATF and the Asia-Pacific Group (APG) to strengthen its anti-money laundering and counter terror-financing regime…, Pakistan has made progress…,” it added.

It Was on expected lines

India’s spat with Malaysia and Turkey over Kashmir had made it a foregone conclusion that they would be among the minimum of three countries required at FATF to block an adverse outcome for Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: 

Spiralling inflation and unemployment are the biggest problems haunting the people of Pakistan and not the Kashmir issue, according to a survey by Gallup International in all four provinces of the cash-strapped country.

The study, which was published by Gallup and Gilani Pakistan on Tuesday, said 53 per cent of respondents believe the country’s economy, specifically increasing inflation, is the biggest problem facing the country.

Worries of inflation is followed by unemployment (23%), corruption (4%) and water crisis (4%), the survey said.

While the Pakistan government is trying hard to internationalise Kashmir, only 8 per cent of the people surveyed voiced their concern over the issue.

The survey also mentions fears over political instability, power crisis, dengue outbreak among other issues.

Gallup Pakistan said the survey’s sample comprised men and women from across the four provinces — Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Sindh.

Pakistan’s economy has struggled in the last few years.

In July, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had said Pakistan was facing “significant economic challenges” due to weak and unbalanced growth and that its economy is at a critical juncture where it needs an ambitious and bold set of reforms.

At the time, Pakistan had a currency reserve of less than USD 8 billion, enough only to cover 1.7 months of imports.

Pakistan and the IMF signed a USD 6 billion bailout package this year, aimed at returning sustainable growth to the country’s fragile economy and improve the standards of living.

Tribune News Service

Dera Baba Nanak, October 16

Dismissing apprehensions over scheduled completion of work on the Indian side of the Kartarpur corridor, the government today said an online registration portal for pilgrims would become functional from next Monday.

Talking to a media team from Delhi at zero line on the International Border (IB), Additional Secretary in the MHA and chairman of Land Port Authority of India (LPAI) Govind Mohan said, “I want to say that we will prove wrong all those who doubted us on meeting the work completion deadline. I am absolutely confident that the entire project, including the road construction and passenger terminal building work, will be completed as per schedule on October 31.”

Claiming that subject to the final agreement between India and Pakistan on operationalising the corridor, Mohan said the LPAI, which will eventually manage the facilities at the port, “will launch an online registration portal on October 20”.

On how pilgrims will be allotted date and time to undertake pilgrimage, he said, “Yes we have a limit of 5,000 pilgrims per day. So, we will follow the Railways reservation system of first come, first served.”

No special treatment

Patiala: SGPC chief Gobind Singh Longowal on Wednesday said all VIPs, including PM Modi, would participate in Guru Nank’s 550th birth anniversary celebrations at Sultanpur Lodhi as ‘sangat’. “No one will be given special place on the stage,” he said. Claiming the stage would be set from November 1, he said government and SGPC were together in celebrating the event. TNS

New York, November 2

The US has said that Pakistan is not doing enough against terrorist groups operating from there that target India, and warned that those groups maintain their offensive capabilities.

“Pakistan did not take sufficient action against externally focused groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), which continued to operate, train, organise, and raise funds in Pakistan,” according to the annual Country Reports on Terrorism for 2018 that was released in Washington on Friday.

The report warned that “Pakistan-based LeT, which was responsible for the 2008 Mumbai attacks, and JeM maintained the capability and intent to attack Indian and Afghan targets”.

“India continued to experience attacks, including by Pakistan-based terrorist organisations and tribal and Maoist insurgents,” it said.

The five terrorist hits in India last year listed in the report included the Maoist improvised explosive device (IED) attack on a police vehicle in Chhattisgarh and another attack in Andhra Pradesh that killed Telugu Desam Party MLA Kidari Sarveswara Rao, and the killing of three people and the wounding of 20 in a grenade attack on Nirankaris by Sikh extremists.

It also mentioned the killing of journalist Shujaat Bukhari in Kashmir and the JeM attack on an army camp in Sunjuwan that killed six soldiers and a civilian.

The report drew attention to the risk of radicalisation and recruitment by terrorist organisations using social media.

“Indian government officials continued to be concerned over the use of the internet, including social media and messaging apps like WhatsApp, for terrorist recruitment and radicalisation and the fomenting of inter-religious tensions,” the report said.

Rajiv Gauba, who was then the Home Secretary, and other senior officers met representatives from global social media companies last year to review steps to prevent online terrorist recruitment and radicalisation, according to the report.

It said that cases of online terrorist radicalisation in southern India were reported throughout the year, including reports of some recruits being smuggled to Islamic State (IS) terrorities in Afghanistan.

According to the report, India disrupted an IS-inspired terrorist cell that was reportedly planning terrorist attacks in late 2018.

“India continued to apply pressure to detect, disrupt, and degrade terrorist organisations’ operations within its borders,” the report added. IANS

Key point: Like the Soviet Union, Russia knows that aircraft carriers are force multipliers for the U.S. military

During the Cold War, the United States Navy maintained a large and robust carrier fleet. In 1984 it operated thirteen carriers, a mix of conventional and nuclear-powered ships with air wings upwards of 85 aircraft. The carrier of 1984 fielded a diverse air wing, including the F-14 Tomcat fleet interceptor, F/A-18 Hornet multirole fighter, A-6 Intruder bomber, A-7 Corsair attack aircraft, and a variety of anti-submarine and support planes.

One of the missions the Soviets feared the most was a multi-carrier surge into the Norwegian Sea, where they could threaten Soviet air and naval bases. From there carriers could stage air raids against military targets across the northwestern USSR, hampering the ability of Soviet forces to dominate the North Atlantic and beyond. Alternately they could attack Soviet ballistic missiles submarines operating in the so-called “bastion” in the Barents Sea. Soviet missile submarines, concentrated near the homeland for protection, would be hunted down and destroyed.

But perhaps the gravest threat from Moscow’s perspective were the nuclear weapons regularly stationed on U.S. carriers. The prospect of one or more enemy aircraft carriers operating off the coast of the USSR, constantly on the move and each with up to ten nuclear bombers on her flight deck was a serious concern to the Soviet leadership.

United Nations, October 31

Pakistan violated its obligations under the Vienna Convention in the arrest and detention of Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav, International Court of Justice (ICJ) President Judge Abduylqawi Yusuf told the UN General Assembly here.

Jadhav, 49, a retired Indian Navy officer, was sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court on charges of “espionage and terrorism” after a closed trial in April 2017. India has maintained that Jadhav was kidnapped from Iran where he had business interests after retiring from the Navy.

Presenting the report of the International Court of Justice to the 193-member General Assembly on Wednesday, Yusuf said in its judgement of July 17 the principal judicial organ of the United Nations “found that Pakistan had violated its obligations under Article 36 of the Vienna Convention and that appropriate remedies were due in this case”. 

In a major victory for India, the ICJ had ruled that Pakistan must review the death sentence given to Jadhav. India had argued that consular access was being denied to its national in violation of the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.

The bench led by Yusuf had ordered an “effective review and reconsideration of the conviction and sentence of Kulbhushan Sudhir Jadhav.” 

Yusuf elaborated on several aspects of the Court’s ruling in Jadhav’s case while presenting his report to the General Assembly.

He said one of the issues that the Court had to examine was the question of whether the rights relating to consular access, set out in Article 36 of the Vienna Convention, were in any manner to be excluded in a situation where the individual concerned was suspected of carrying out acts of espionage.

“The Court noted in that regard that there is no provision in the Vienna Convention containing a reference to cases of espionage; nor does the Article concerning consular access, Article 36, exclude from its scope certain categories of persons, such as those suspected of espionage. Therefore, the Court concluded that Article 36 of the Vienna Convention was applicable in full to the case at hand,” he said.

The Court was also called upon to interpret the meaning of the expression “without delay” in the notification requirements of Article 36 of the Vienna Convention. The Court noted that in its case, the question of how to determine what was meant by the term “without delay” depended on the given circumstances of a case.

“Taking into account the particular circumstances of the Jadhav case, the Court noted that Pakistan’s making of the notification some three weeks after Jadhav’s arrest constituted a breach of its obligation to inform India’s consular post “without delay”, as required by the provisions of the Vienna Convention,” he noted.

He further said “another interesting legal question” that the Court had to address was whether a bilateral agreement on consular access concluded between the two Parties – India and Pakistan – in 2008 could be read as excluding the applicability of the Vienna Convention.

“The Court considered that this was not the case,” he said.

“More precisely, the Court noted that under the Vienna Convention, parties were able to conclude only bilateral agreements that confirm, supplement, extend or amplify the provisions of that instrument. Having examined the 2008 Agreement, the Court came to the conclusion that it could not be read as denying consular access in the case of an arrest, detention or sentence made on political or security grounds, and that it did not displace obligations under Article 36 of the Vienna Convention.”

Coming to the “crux” of the Court’s ruling, he said the Court considered the reparation and remedies to be granted, after it had found that the rights to consular access had been violated.

“In line with its earlier jurisprudence in other cases dealing with breaches of the Vienna Convention, the Court found that the appropriate remedy was effective review and reconsideration of the conviction and sentence of Mr Jadhav.”

Yusuf told the General Assembly that the Court moreover clarified what it considered to be the requirements of effective review and reconsideration.

It stressed that “Pakistan must ensure that full weight is given to the effect of the violation of the rights set forth in the Vienna Convention and guarantee that the violation and the possible prejudice caused by the violation are fully examined.”

“While the Court left the choice of means to provide effective review and reconsideration to Pakistan, it noted that effective review and reconsideration presupposes the existence of a procedure that is suitable for this purpose and observed that it is normally the judicial process that is suited to this task.” Yusuf said following its ruling, the Court received a communication dated August 1, 2019 from Pakistan confirming its commitment to implementing the July 17 judgment in full.

“In particular, Pakistan stated that Jadhav had been immediately informed of his rights under the Vienna Convention and that the consular post of the High Commission of India in Islamabad had been invited to visit him on August 2, 2019,” Yusuf said.

However, the meeting, which was scheduled on August 2, did not materialise amid differences between India and Pakistan on the terms of the consular access to Jadhav.

Jadhav was finally granted the consular access on September 2.

India had welcomed the verdict of the International Court of Justice, saying that the ruling of the court by a vote of 15-1 upheld India’s position in the case. — PTI

Chief of the Army Gen Bipin Rawat, Chief of the Navy Admiral Karambir Singh and Chief of IAF RKS Bhadauria met Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and reviewed the security situation along the borders.

The chiefs of the three armed forces met Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday, a defence ministry spokesperson said.

Sources said Singh reviewed the security situation along the borders.

“Chief of the Army Staff General Bipin Rawat, Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Karambir Singh and Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria called on Raksha Mantri Shri @rajnathsingh in New Delhi, today,” the principal spokesperson of the ministry tweeted.

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