Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) and Indian Navy carried out successful flight-trials of first-of-its-kind Naval Anti-Ship missile (NASM-SR) from Integrated Test Range (ITR), Chandipur on February 25, 2025. The trials demonstrated the missile’s capability against ship targets while launched from an Indian Naval SeaKing Helicopter.

The trials have proven the missile’s Man-in-Loop feature and scored a direct hit on a small ship target in sea-skimming mode at its maximum range. The missile uses an Indigenous Imaging Infra-Red Seeker for terminal guidance. The mission also has demonstrated the high bandwidth two way datalink system, which is used to transmit the seeker live images back to the pilot for in-flight retargeting.

The missile was launched in Bearing-only Lock-on after launch mode with several targets in close vicinity for selecting one among them. The missile initially locked on to a large target within a specified zone of search and during the terminal phase, the pilot selected a smaller hidden target resulting in its being hit with pinpoint accuracy.

The missile uses an indigenous Fibre Optic Gyroscope-based INS and Radio Altimeter for its Mid-course guidance, an Integrated avionics module, Electro-Mechanical actuators for Aerodynamic and Jet vane control, thermal batteries and PCB warhead. It uses solid propulsion with an in-line ejectable booster and a long-burn sustainer. The trials have met all the mission objectives.

The missile is developed by different labs of DRDO including Research Centre Imarat, Defence Research and Development Laboratory, High Energy Materials Research Laboratory and Terminal Ballistics Research Laboratory. The missiles are currently being produced by Development cum Production Partners with the help of MSME’s, start-ups and other production partners.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has congratulated DRDO, Indian Navy and the industries for the successful flight tests. The tests for Man-in-Loop features is unique as it gives the capability of in flight retargeting, he said.

The Indian Army has signed a contract to procure a system that detects traces of chemical warfare agents and toxic industrial chemicals by sampling air from the environment. This will help identify the effects of chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear…

The Indian Army has signed a contract to procure a system that detects traces of chemical warfare agents and toxic industrial chemicals by sampling air from the environment. This will help identify the effects of chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) weapons.

Called the ‘Automatic Chemical Agent Detection and Alarm’ (ACADA) system, the Army will procure 223 units from L&T at a cost of Rs 80.43 crore. The Ministry of Defence said today that ACADA, designed and developed by DRDO’s Defence Research and Development Establishment (DRDE), Gwalior, marks a significant milestone in India’s indigenisation efforts in the niche CBRN domain.

The system detects chemical warfare agents (CWA) and programmed toxic industrial chemicals (TICs) using Ion Mobility Spectrometry (IMS). It features two highly sensitive IMS cells for continuous detection and simultaneous monitoring of harmful substances.

The MoD said inducting ACADA into field units will significantly enhance the Army’s defensive CBRN capabilities, both for operations and peacetime. More than 80 per cent of its components and sub-systems will be sourced locally.

In a fresh ambush attempt, an Army vehicle came under fire from terrorists hiding in the dense forest area of Sunderbani, Rajouri, on Wednesday afternoon. The incident occurred in Phal village, located on the Sunderbani Malla road, when one or…

Arjun Sharma

In a fresh ambush attempt, an Army vehicle came under fire from terrorists hiding in the dense forest area of Sunderbani, Rajouri, on Wednesday afternoon.

The incident occurred in Phal village, located on the Sunderbani Malla road, when one or two rounds of bullets were fired at an Army truck moving through the narrow road surrounded by a thick pine forest. The fire reportedly came from an adjacent hill as the vehicle was passing through the area.

There were no reports of injuries to the driver or any other occupant of the vehicle. While the Army did not issue an official statement about the incident, an official confirmed, “Today at 1 pm, near the water tank at village Phal, Sunderbani Malla road, one or two rounds were fired at the 9 JAK vehicle while it was patrolling the area.”

This is not the first time that Army vehicles and soldiers have been ambushed in the border districts of Rajouri and Poonch in recent years. The area where the attack took place is located relatively close to the Line of Control (LoC), which has witnessed several incidents of cross-border firing in recent months. Interestingly, troops stationed in the neighbouring Akhnoor sector also opened fire on suspicious movement during the intervening night of Tuesday and Wednesday.

Following the attack, reinforcements were immediately sent to the area and a search operation was launched in the surrounding forest. The CRPF and the Special Operations Group (SOG) of the Jammu and Kashmir Police joined the operation, but no terrorists were found by evening.

Senior Army and police officials have made several visits to the Akhnoor sector along the LoC in recent weeks following intelligence inputs suggesting that terrorists might attempt to infiltrate into Indian Territory.

On February 21, Lt Gen MV Suchindra Kumar, GOC-in-C of Northern Command, visited the Akhnoor sector to review the operational readiness of the formation. Inspector General of Police (IGP) Jammu, Bhim Sen Tuti, also conducted a comprehensive review of the security and border management situation in the Akhnoor sub-division.

Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), in collaboration with operatives in Bangladesh, is working to re-establish training camps of the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) near the border areas, signalling an escalation in efforts to destabilise India’s Northeast region. Highly placed…

Animesh Singh Tribune News Service

Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), in collaboration with operatives in Bangladesh, is working to re-establish training camps of the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) near the border areas, signalling an escalation in efforts to destabilise India’s Northeast region. Highly placed sources indicate that the ISI has even met ULFA leader Paresh Baruah, who reportedly travelled to Bangladesh in recent weeks.

Bid to destabilise NorthEast region

• Intel sources reveal ULFA training camps reopened in Bangladesh close to Assam, other northeastern states
• Sources say ISI has even met ULFA leader Paresh Baruah, who reportedly travelled to Bangladesh in recent weeks
• The revival of ULFA camps signals an escalation in efforts to destabilise India’s Northeast region

Amid these threats, Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma last month expressed hope that Baruah, who is in exile, would not destabilise his home state. During a media interaction in Kokrajhar, Sarma stated, “My personal view is that he wants peace. I keep talking to him and I have no information or idea that he wants to destabilise Assam. He may not come to the negotiating table, but I believe he does not want to disrupt peace in Assam. After all, he is also an Assamese. Who would want to bring bloodshed to their own state?”

However, intelligence sources reveal that several ULFA training camps have been reopened in Bangladesh close to Assam and other northeastern states over the past few months. These camps had been shut down during the Sheikh Hasina’s regime. The revival of these camps coincides with political unrest in Bangladesh, which led to Hasina fleeing the country on August 5, 2024, and the interim Mohammad Yunus-led government taking charge.

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The sources further indicate that Baruah, who was reportedly in China and Myanmar earlier, visited target India’s Northeast region. Adding to these concerns, the Bangladesh High Court last month commuted Baruah’s life imprisonment to 14 years in a case under the country’s arms Act. Baruah was sentenced to death in absentia in 2014 for his alleged involvement in smuggling 10 truckloads of weapons to ULFA hideouts in Assam. His name also features on the most-wanted list of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) .

Intelligence agencies suspect that Baruah may soon be released, given recent developments in Bangladesh. They fear that his extensive knowledge of the Northeast could be exploited by the ISI to destabilise the region.

These unsettling developments come amid reports by The Tribune, which highlighted intercepted wireless communications in Arabic, Urdu and Bengali from across the Bangladesh border. This has raised concerns about ISI presence in regions bordering West Bengal.

The time has come for Europe to design its own security architecture; interests of nation states have always prevailed over alliances.

Manish Tewari

The Europeans were left dumbfounded, if not shell-shocked, by the verbal whiplashing administered to them by US Vice-President James David Vance at the sixty-first iteration of the Munich Security Conference earlier this month. Vance questioned the fundamental commitment of Europeans to democratic values, that, he argued, underpinned the US-European construct. By the end of the speech, there was a lot of European strategic blood spilled on the conference floor of Hotel Bayerischer Hof.

The diatribe led to extended recriminations, with many European leaders pushing back strongly against Vance’s caricatured characterisation of the current state of play in Europe.

However, this begs the question as to why Europeans are surprised. For, they have to only look back to the past hundred years or so of US ties with Europe to see that America has always only acted in its own interest — what it has conveniently characterised as American exceptionalism.The First World War began on July 28, 1914. It was triggered by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian empire, and his wife Sophie, by a Bosnian Serb a month earlier. Though it was a European war, the Triple Entente — Britain, France and Russia — which was fighting the Triple Alliance of Austria-Hungary, Germany and Italy, pleaded with America to weigh in on its side.

The US, led by President Woodrow Wilson, stymied by Senators with Jacksonian impulses, refused to enter what it deemed, and perhaps correctly so, a European imperial joust.

It was only two and a half years later, on April 7, 1917, that the US declared war on Germany. And that was only because the Germans had unleashed extensive submarine warfare in the North Atlantic Ocean, causing a huge loss of American men and material.

An added trigger was a communication by the then German Foreign Minister, Arthur Zimmermann, which later came to be known as the notorious “Zimmermann Telegram”. It promised the Mexican government that Germany would help Mexico retrieve the territory it had lost to the US in the wake of the Mexican-American war of 1846-1848. In return for this assistance, Germany asked for Mexico’s support in the war.he Monroe doctrine conceptualised by President James Monroe and his Secretary of State John Quincy Adams. Articulated during Monroe’s address to the US Congress on December 2, 1823, the Doctrine held that the Western Hemisphere, especially the Americas, was the US’ exclusive sphere of influence and the Europeans had no business to interfere in this eminent domain. Thus, only when its own interests were threatened did the US enter the European war.

After the spectacular collapse of the League of Nations — midwifed by President Wilson, vide the Treaty of Versailles on June 28, 1919, with the Japanese walkout in February 1933 and the German withdrawal eight months later — the US once again retreated into splendid isolation even as Adolf Hitler and his Nazis gobbled up territories and countries in Europe, beginning with the Austrian Anschluss in March 1938.

Even when the Great Britain stood alone in its darkest hour — from May to November 1940 — President Roosevelt expressed his inability to help it because of the Neutrality Act of 1939 and the Johnson Act of 1934.

Though certain innovative means were found later, the US only formally entered World War II after the devastating Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

Then also, to begin with, on December 8, 1941, it only declared war on Japan. It was only when Germany and Italy declared war on the US on December 11, 1941, did it reciprocate that announcement. The bottom line is that even as Europe was being subjugated by the hoodlums of the Gestapo and Shcutzstaffel, the US may have continued to remain neutral had it not been for the Japanese attack.

Fast forward to the US withdrawal from Vietnam on April 30, 1975 — after a decade of involvement that effectively led to the extinguishment of South Vietnam, with over 58,000 dead and expenditure of over $1 trillion. This is another example of how the changing domestic environment in the US trumped its international commitments. Many South Vietnamese who had allied with the US in this battle were left to the tender mercies of their North Vietnamese ‘comrades’.

Similarly, the US pullout from Iraq on December 18, 2011 after a nine-year-long war was fought on the false premise that there were weapons of mass destruction in that country — which coincided with the rise of the Islamic State or ISIS in Iraq and Syria. The war in Iraq, in which a million Americans served, cost the US exchequer $2.9 trillion and left 4,61,000 people dead. It is still not clear what the casus belli of that intervention was.

Similarly, the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, which handed back the country to the very same Taliban it had chased out in 2001 — thereby rolling back two decades of investment in creating a nascent democracy, respect for human rights, women’s empowerment and free speech. The Afghan War cost the US $2.313 trillion and left 2,43,000 dead. The conflict in Afghanistan continues.

Why should the Europeans then shake in sanctimonious indignation now that Donald Trump has done a complete volte-face on the Russian aggression of Ukraine? As old imperialists and serial warmongers over centuries, they should understand that you cannot anchor your defence in someone else’s port.

The time has come for Europe to design its own security architecture. It should recall the wise caution of Cardinal Richelieu: raison d’état, that each nation acts in its best national interest. So should the doctrine of the balance of power, intellectualised by Hugo Grotius, be recalled.

In the theory and practice of international relations, interests of nation states have always prevailed over alliances. That’s because interests are permanent but allies transitory, if not evanescent.

The F-35 is already a highly questionable and controversial commodity in the USA itself. There have been too many glitches.

Abhijit Bhattacharyya

AFORMER foreign secretary has advised “India to adjust to a whole new world” with “only transactions and deals” and believes that there are “no friends and enemies in this scenario.” Obviously, the diplomat’s assessment originates from the ‘real-time’ unpredictability of the sole ‘super power’, President Donald Trump, who appears difficult to be dealt with by today’s “whole new world.”

Simply put, the ‘scenario’ today has dramatically turned to ‘T’ for ‘transactional Trump’, and ‘D’ for ‘dollar deals Donald’, with the USA launching its global blitzkrieg for ‘deal’ and ‘transaction’. The US unilateralism is compelling friends and foes alike to either scurry for cover or make a personal appearance before Trump to keep him in good humour, notwithstanding the bleak prospect of any meaningful result. Trump loves the driver seat for deals, dictating all in his durbar to put their signatures in the DC-prepared draft of transaction documents.

Trump now wants India to buy the Lockheed F-35 fighter to reduce America’s $35 billion bilateral trade deficit with Delhi.

However, India knows well (as does the USA, presumably) that any international deal, transaction, contract, or even the hatching of criminal conspiracy, is a bilateral process and essentially a matter of ‘offer plus acceptance’ for the sealing of the deal. From India’s perspective, too, shouldn’t then the F-35 be looked into?

Barring the US Douglas DC-3 Dakota and Fairchild Packet C119G transport and air-dropping, the Indian Air Force has never had a US fighter in its combat squadron inventory since 1947. Hence, the sudden transformative, unilateral and command-like-offer to India to buy the Lockheed F-35 multirole fighter by the transactional President of the US (POTUS) deserves a scrutiny, especially in light of the contemporary geopolitical weather and history of erratic, overbearing US policy towards Delhi-DC bilateral contours over the decades.

First, let us be clear that no air force of a country of India’s shape and size is made in a day and an air force building is no garden party or a matter of joke. It is a serious business of high-tech, high-risk, high-investment and exceptionally high-quality trained personnel or men behind the machines.

Jane’s All the World’s Aircraft shows that the period from the “request for proposal” to the “first delivery” of the F-35 fifth generation multirole stealth fighter Lockheed, spanned over 15 years (December 1995-May 2011). Also, India was never under the US radar either as an industrial partner or a potential buyer or readymade user of the high-tech Lockheed fighter. The F-35 essentially was for the advanced west and its defence and security partners from the non-west.

Thus, in late 1996, “Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Singapore, Spain and Sweden were briefed on the programme.” It was clear from the beginning that it would be an enormously expensive flying machine.

First-level collaboration with 10 per cent cost-sharing was sought from the UK; Italy and the Netherlands were level-two partners, with 5 per cent cost sharing; level three involved the payment of 1-2 per cent with Denmark and Norway and, finally, came Australia, Canada and Turkey, who were to bear the cost on their own.

Consequently, the cost of each fighter was exorbitant. As seen from the annual publication of Jane’s All the World’s Aircraft, from 2012-2013, each unit cost of the US Air Force F-35A was quoted as $37.3 million. It escalated to $94.3 million in 2017 and is now well over $100 million per fighter. On top of this, if one takes into account the depreciation of the Indian rupee vis-a-vis the US dollar, the expenditure by the Indian exchequer can be truly mindboggling. It can make any F-35 “deal” or “transaction” highly explosive and an impossible hot political potato, with the questionable possibility of the US fighter role, responsibility and utility in the Indian defence system.

There are also multiple technical factors which surely would be beyond the comprehension of the millions of uninitiated, who get impressed by the air display and further charged by the emotional public debate of/for optics.

The F-35 is already a highly questionable and controversial commodity in the USA itself. There have been too many glitches and cost and time overruns that have made both the POTUS and his principal Man Friday, Elon Musk, making comments on the US aviation industrial capacity and capability. The POTUS is after Boeing for its inability to deliver two ‘Air Force One’ transport craft for the White House. Musk is all over F-35, making comments like: “F-35 fighter jets are obsolete” and “meanwhile, some idiots are still building manned fighter jets like F-35.”

Expectedly, the outgoing US air chief has given Musk a mouthful of expletives.

Tech and economics aside, India is expected to follow zero-tolerance to flight safety failure if it afflicts an extraordinarily “sophisticated stealth” like F-35. Regrettably, things went wrong early in October 2010 itself, with a brief grounding of the fleet at the Edwards Air Force Base (AFB), owing to a “software problem affecting the pump that could have caused un-commanded inflight shutdown of engine.”

Almost 15 years have gone by, but unexplained and unexpected inflight glitches continue to plague the F-35s. A few citations would suffice. In two successive accidents in June and July of 2014, a mixed group of F-35s “suffered catastrophic engine failure at Eglin AFB which was followed by a fleet-wide grounding order.” This is similar to what the Indian Air Force faces today — a whole fleet of the indigenous Advanced Light Helicopter Dhruv being grounded after the January 5, 2025 crash.

For the F-35, however, the most serious finding of the accident inquiry report was “rubbing between third-stage fan blades in low-pressure section of the P&W F-135 engine and the inner wall of compressor casing.”

Unfortunately, the F-35 offered by the POTUS still suffers from nagging niggles which do not inspire confidence of any potential user. That’s the irony, but also the reality. One, therefore, would hate to see a possible increase in the number of widows and orphans in our Air Force stations during peace time.

The Jammu and Kashmir Police have issued an alert to the Village Defence Guards (VDG) and Border Police Posts (BPP) in response to intelligence inputs suggesting that terrorists might attempt to infiltrate from the border areas in the Jammu division….

The Jammu and Kashmir Police have issued an alert to the Village Defence Guards (VDG) and Border Police Posts (BPP) in response to intelligence inputs suggesting that terrorists might attempt to infiltrate from the border areas in the Jammu division.

Inspector General (IG) Bhim Sen Tuti, accompanied by senior police officials, visited the Akhnoor sector, where he met with BPP personnel and VDG members, urging them to remain vigilant. The senior police official also interacted with Border Security Force (BSF) and Army personnel stationed in the area to assess the security situation, following recent incidents along the border.

During his visit, Tuti engaged with local police officials, stressing the importance of maintaining high morale and operational readiness. He conducted a thorough review of the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems (CCTNS) and assessed the preparedness for the implementation of new criminal laws. A major focus of the visit was the evaluation of the Border Management Grid along the International Border (IB) and Line of Control (LoC), where Tuti personally inspected security arrangements and emphasised the need for seamless coordination between security agencies.

Superintendent of Police (SP) Rural Jammu, Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) Akhnoor, and Station House Officer (SHO) Akhnoor provided detailed briefings on crime and security conditions within their areas.

Addressing police personnel, IG Tuti directed them to remain extra vigilant and activate all police infrastructure within their Areas of Responsibility (AORs). He highlighted the importance of alerting VDGs, Quick Reaction Teams (QRTs), and Border Police Posts, and urged enhanced coordination with the BSF and the Indian Army.

Tuti also held a detailed meeting with the General Officer Commanding (GOC) 10 Division, Indian Army, Akhnoor, to discuss collaborative strategies for ensuring peace and security in the region.

Xu was speaking at an event at the Chinese embassy to mark the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties

Ajay Banerjee Tribune News Service

Chinese ambassador to India Xu Feihong today said the two countries should see each other’s development as an opportunity and not a threat. He stressed the need for a “reboot of the China-India ties”.

He said the India-China relations were entering the “phase of recovery” and the relationship between the two nations was “one of the most important” bilateral engagements globally.

Citing agreements reached between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping at a meeting in Kazan, Russia, last year, Xu said, “We should make efforts to translate the important consensuses reached by our leaders into common understandings…China and India should see each other…as a cooperation partner rather than a competitor”.

Xu was speaking at an event at the Chinese embassy to mark the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties.

“A sound and stable China-India relationship meets the expectations of the two peoples and the international community,” Xu said.

Xu mentioned the special representatives’ meeting on the China-India boundary issue saying they had reached a series of common understandings.

“This creates an important opportunity for a reboot of the China-India relations and provides a broader platform for exchanges and cooperation,” the ambassador said.

The two countries needed to mutually respect each other’s core interests, view each other’s development as an opportunity, encourage exchanges and visits in various fields and at different levels, enhance mutual understanding and mutual trust, and work together to achieve common development and rejuvenation, he said.

India and China have initiated high-level meetings to normalise their strained ties and build trust, with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri engaging with their Chinese counterparts.

Top security officers met in Ramban district on Tuesday and discussed an integrated plan to crackdown on the terror ecosystem in Chenab Valley which was rocked by several terror incidents last year, officials said. The government’s plan to arm ex-servicemen,..

Top security officers met in Ramban district on Tuesday and discussed an integrated plan to crackdown on the terror ecosystem in Chenab Valley which was rocked by several terror incidents last year, officials said.

The government’s plan to arm ex-servicemen, supplementing the existing Village Defence Guards, was also discussed during the joint security review meeting, which took place at Dharmund military garrison, they said.

The officials said this initiative seeks to harness the expertise of the ex-servicemen, enabling them to actively combat terrorism and safeguard the communities.

The meeting was presided over by General Officer Commanding, Counter Insurgency Force (Delta), Major General APS Bal, and was among others attended by Inspector General of Police, Jammu zone, Bhim Sen Tuti, and Inspector General of CRPF R Gopala Krishna Rao.

Deputy Inspector General of Police, Doda-Kishtwar-Ramban region, Sector Commanders, Commanding Officers, Senior Superintendents of Police (SSPs) of Doda, Ramban and Kishtwar and representatives of central and local intelligence agencies also attended the meeting, the officials said.

They said the deliberation on various important issues, including the security situation and terrorists support system, was carried out.

In addition, upcoming activities in the region were discussed to ensure complete synergy between all security and intelligence agencies for a coordinated effort towards achieving common goals, the officials said.

They said the meeting was centred on the escalating threat posed by terrorist organisations in the region.

Detailed information of overground workers was also exchanged and an integrated plan was discussed to crackdown the terrorist ecosystem in Doda, Kishtwar and Ramban region, leveraging the collective strength of Army, police and intelligence agencies, the officials said.

They said the meeting also had a detailed review of protocols for intelligence sharing with an eye towards refining procedures for timely exchange of critical information vital to regional and local security.

This milestone meeting represented a significant leap forward in fostering a robust alliance between the army, police, intelligence agencies and law enforcement agencies, the officials said.

After a special court awarded life imprisonment to former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar in connection with the murder of a father-son duo in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, victims settled here said justice was delivered extremely late. The SGPC welcomed the…

Neeraj Bagga Tribune News Service

After a special court awarded life imprisonment to former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar in connection with the murder of a father-son duo in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, victims settled here said justice was delivered extremely late.

The SGPC welcomed the punishment awarded to Delhi Sikh massacre accused Sajjan Kumar. With this decision, the families of the victims, which had been waiting for justice for four decades, would get some relief, said Kulwant Singh Manan, chief secretary of the SGPC. It was expected that the convict would be hanged, but life imprisonment was awarded to him, which was very less compared to his crime. He said the SGPC would continue its legal battle for strict punishment to the accused.

He said thousands of Sikhs were murdered in 1984. The carnage was led by people like Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler, whom the Congress always protected.

Questioning the role of Congress leadership, Manan said there should be a high-level investigation into the role of those who tried to protect the massacre perpetrators.

Riot survivor Balbir Kaur (80) said the punishment was too little and too late. A resident of the housing board colony at Ranjit Avenue, she recalled that her family comprising her husband Surjit Singh and two children (Kuldeep Singh and Sharanjit Kaur) resided in the Jagatpuri area in 1984. Their house was attacked by a mob as they had given shelter to some Sikh families. “Our house was torched. My husband was brutally assaulted and he had to live the rest of his life as a handicapped person,” she said. Balbir Kaur now resides with her son in Ranjit Avenue, while her daughter Sharanjit is settled with her husband and three children at Varpal village.

Another riot survivor Surjit Singh (65) said Sajjan Kumar used to lead mobs during that period. They were expecting capital punishment for him, he added.

At the time of riots, he and his family resided in Etawah (UP). As a 24-year-old youth, he saw his shop being looted. A month later, he visited Delhi and Kanpur and observed the horrendous outcome of the pogrom. He welcomed the Modi government’s move to start punishing the accused after the constitution of 14 commissions to probe riots.