Five Pak terrorists gunned down | Two Defence Security Corps men, IAF commando killed, says Punjab DGP

Ravi Dhaliwal,Tribune News Service,Pathankot, January 2

Dressed in army fatigues, a group of five terrorists, suspected to belong to Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), entered the Pathankot Air Force base in the wee hours today and engaged security forces in a fierce gunbattle lasting several hours, before four of them were killed in the morning. The fifth terrorist could be neutralised at only around 7 pm, almost 15 hours after they struck. Punjab DGP Suresh Arora said two Defence Security Corps (DSC) men and an Air Force commando also died in the attack. DSC personnel are retired Armymen who are reemployed to undertake guard duties at static establishments. Earlier reports had put the number of DSC casualties at five. Arora said the terrorists belonged to JeM. The attack took place hours after the Pathankot police and the Army launched a massive combing operation in the area falling between Chakki river and the rear gate of the air base.Yesterday, a Gurdaspur-based SP-rank officer had claimed that five terrorists had kidnapped him at 3 am on January 1, before freeing him and his two acquaintances just outside the rear gate of the Air Force station an hour later. All security agencies had been put on high alert and the elite National Security Guards too had been rushed to Pathankot last night. The security agencies had been working on the theory that the five “Urdu-speaking fidayeen” could be targeting the strategic defence installations in this border city. Search operations were launched for these five suspects by 5 pm yesterday and by 8 pm, the entire city had virtually shut down. The terrorists are believed to have entered the air base from the rear gate and their target was said to be the hangars where combat aircraft, including a MiG-21 squadron and an MI-35 attack helicopter unit, are located. As the ultras snooped their way into the station around 3 am, the Air Force claimed they were detected by aerial surveillance platforms. By 5 am, nearly 300 Armymen were deployed along with Armoured Personal Carriers (APC). The IAF also used choppers for surveillance and engaged the terrorists with aerial firing. An IAF statement said they were contained immediately, preventing them from reaching the technical area. This is the second major attack in a city bordering  Pakistan. In July, three Lashkar-e-Toiba ultras had executed a terror strike in Dinanagar, killing seven people, including an SP-rank officer. Dinanagar is 20 km away from Pathankot.  Senior police officers said the target was to destroy military installations in and around Pathankot. “That is why they did not take the SP  hostage as it would have created a furore. They had bigger plans,” an officer said.

Combing of area to continue today

• Combing and sanitising operation in the Pathankot Air Force station is to continue on Sunday as well
• The five terrorists could have used multiple entry points. One was shot dead as he was scaling the 10-metre-high outer wall of the IAF station
• The area where the terrorists were stopped and engaged in gunbattle houses the administrative complex, canteen, residential quarters, officers’ mess and airmen mess
• Salwinder Singh, SP (Headquarters) in Gurdaspur till recently, who claimed to have been kidnapped by fiveterrorists on January 1, is being questioned by various security and Intelligence agencies

NSG led from front, cops formed outside cordon

• In Saturday’s operation, Punjab Police formed the outer cordon, while the NSG commandos took charge. Punjab Police were controlling the surging crowds at the main gate while the NSG collaborated with the Army to execute the counter-attack.
• Punjab Police had come under fire during the Dinanagar attack for not letting the Army take charge of that operation. Only senior Punjab Police officers were allowed to go inside the encounter site on Saturday. The DGP, Suresh Arora, arrived around 10.30 am.
• Two attack helicopters and an NSG plane kept hovering over the station through the day.

Protesters carry placards of Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, chief of banned Jamaat-ud-Dawa, during a protest against the attack on the Pathankot air base, in Mumbai on January 4, 2016. AFP file

Muzaffarabad, February 4

A Pakistani firebrand cleric has praised the Pathankot air base attack in India last month that threatened to scupper peace efforts between the nuclear rivals.Hafiz Saeed, alleged mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai attacks and leader of the banned Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) group, encouraged further violence following the air base assault in Pathankot that left seven Indian soldiers dead.Addressing a rally of around 1,000 people in the disputed Pakistan-occupied Kashmir region yesterday, Saeed said: “800,000 Indian troops are committing genocide on Kashmiris. Don’t they have a right to carry out Pathankot style attacks for their defence?”Saeed, who remains a free man, also lauded Kashmiri militant leader Sayed Salahuddin, who heads the United Jihad Council (UJC) that has claimed responsibility for the attack.“You have only seen one attack on Pathankot. Matters could easily escalate.”Crowds at the rally shouted slogans including “The war will continue until the liberation of Kashmir” and “We are ready for jihad”.Indian officials believe another group — the Pakistan based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) — was behind the siege.Saeed’s freedom and his frequent calls for jihad against India irk New Delhi, which considers JuD — a UN designated “terror organisation” — to be no more than a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the militant group blamed for the 2008 Mumbai attacks that left 166 people dead. — AFP

Peshawar, January 20

The Tehreek-i-Taliban Geedar group commander who claimed the deadly attack on Bacha Khan University in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Charsadda Wednesday is Umar Mansoor, the de facto operational head of TTP in KP.Journalist Hasan Abdullah tells Dawn.com Mansoor is the faction’s commander specifically in Charsadda, Darra Adam Khel, Noshera and surrounding areas. “He had been very close to Hakimullah Mehsud’s inner circle and was also close to Umar Khalid Khorasani at one time,” says Abdullah.He adds while he is said to have shifted to Afghanistan after Pakistan’s military operation in 2014, Mansoor is reported to have crossed into Pakistan at several points.A Reuters profile titled ‘Pakistan’s most hated man: volleyball player, child killer’ described Mansoor as a 37-year-old father of three and volleyball enthusiast who is nicknamed “Slim”.His real name is Umar Mansoor and is also claimed by TTP to be the mastermind of 2014’s massacre of 134 children and nine staff at a military-run school in Peshawar – the deadliest militant attack in Pakistan’s history.A video posted on a Taliban wesbite after the Army Public School attack showed a man with a chest-length beard, who sought to justify the December 16 attack. The caption identified him as Umar Mansoor. The Taliban said the APS attack, in which gunmen wearing suicide-bomb vests executed children, was retaliation for a military offensive carried out by the Pakistani army. Six Pakistani Taliban interviewed by Reuters confirmed the mastermind was Mansoor. Four of them said he is close to Mullah Fazlullah, the embattled leader of the TTP who ordered assassins to kill schoolgirl activist Malala Yousafzai. Mansoor got a high school education in the capital, Islamabad, two Taliban members said, and later studied in a madrassah. Mansoor has two brothers and spent some time working in the city of Karachi as a labourer before joining the Taliban soon after it was formed, in late 2007, said one commander.His nickname is “naray,” a word in the Pashto language meaning “slim”, and he is the father of two daughters and a son, said another commanders. The Taliban video describes him as the “amir”, or leader, of Peshawar and nearby Darra Adam Khel. Mansoor deeply opposes talks with the government, the commanders said.“He was very strict from the start when he joined,” a commander said. “He left many commanders behind if they had a soft corner (of their heart) for the government.”— By arrangement with the Dawn

Pak’s ‘most hated’ man

• Umar Mansoor, who claimed the deadly attack on Bacha Khan University in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Charsadda, is the de facto operational head of Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in KP province
• A Reuters profile titled ‘Pakistan’s most hated man: volleyball player, child killer’ described Mansoor as a 37-year-old father of three and volleyball enthusiast who is nicknamed “Slim”
• He is claimed by TTP to be the mastermind of 2014’s massacre of 134 children and nine staff at a military-run school in Peshawar – the deadliest militant attack in Pakistan’s history

‘Hero teacher’ goes down fighting militants

Peshawar, January 20

In a heroic act, a Pakistani chemistry professor in his 30s today lost his life while trying to protect his students using his licensed pistol against armed Taliban militants who stormed the university. Assistant professor Syed Hamid Hussain, 34, fought back against the terrorists as he warned students not to leave the building of the Bacha Khan university in Charsadda, some 50 km southwest of Peshawar.Students spoke of the hero teacher, who flashed his pistol but was gunned down by the militants besides 24 others, media reports said. Geology student Zahoor Ahmed said his chemistry lecturer had warned him not to leave the building after the first shots were fired. “He was holding a pistol in his hand,” he said. “Then I saw a bullet hit him. I saw two militants were firing. I ran inside and then managed to flee by jumping over the back wall.” Another student told television reporters he was in class when he heard gunshots.“We saw three terrorists shouting slogans and rushing towards the stairs of our department,” he said as he described seeing the chemistry professor holding a pistol and firing at the attackers. “Then we saw him fall down and as the terrorists entered the (registrar) office we ran away,” said the student.A traumatised sutdent said they saw several young men wielding AK-47 guns storming the university housing where many students were sleeping. They came from behind and there was a big commotion. We were told by teachers to leave immediately. Some people hid in bathroomsPresident Mamnoon Hussain confirmed Hamid was among the deceased and condoled his death.Netizens took to social networking sites like Twitter to hail the lecturer as a “martyr”. “Martyr of #education: Prof Hamid who was killed by terrorists in #BachaKhanUniversity #Pakistan,” tweeted journalist and academic Raza Ahmad Rumi.The official Facebook page of the university also said Hamid was among those killed. Teachers in northwest Pakistan were given permission to carry firearms in the classroom after the Peshawar school carnage of December 2014 in which Taliban militants killed over 150 people, mostly children. — PTI

Hailed as martyr

• Assistant professor Syed Hamid Hussain, 34, at Bacha Khan university in Charsadda fought back against the terrorists as he warned students not to leave the building after hearing the shots
• Students said the hero teacher flashed his pistol but was gunned down by the militants. Netizens took to social networking sites like Twitter to hail the lecturer as a “martyr”

OH PAKISTAN !

‘Four shot anyone, everyone they came across’

Peshawar, January 20

Ayat Ibrahim was entering the South Block of the Bacha Khan University on Wednesday morning when she heard the first of the gunshots and huge blasts. Initially, the student, in her late 20s, had no idea that the university, named after the iconic Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, was under terrorist attack. It took only a few seconds for Ibrahim to realise the horrific truth.“I saw people screaming and running here and there, and people sprawled on the ground,” the traumatized student told IANS in a telephonic interview from Peshawar.Authorities would later blame the carnage that left 20 people, including students, dead on the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which is at war with the Pakistani state. The TTP too claimed responsibility. “I couldn’t understand what was going on… And I could not see my friend who I had come to see,” she said. The attackers, four in all, opened indiscriminate fire at anyone and everyone they came across. They also hurled grenades, killing or wounding those trying to escape the bloodbath.There were some 3,000 students and staff in the university at the time of the attack besides about 600 guests. They had gathered in the campus for a poetry recital to commemorate the anniversary of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, popularly known as Bacha Khan.Ibrahim was stunned but did what many other students did at the spur of the moment – she ran towards the university buses parked in the vicinity. As the buses began to fill up, the drivers drove away the vehicles out of the campus at top speed, saving numerous lives.Ibrahim told IANS that she had no idea how many people had been killed. But she guessed it would be a large number.Soldiers rushed to the university and engaged the terrorists, triggering gun battles that lasted over five hours.They managed to kill all four attackers. But by then, the university — set up in July 2012 — was badly battered with 20 students, academics and other employees dead and dozens wounded. — IANS

University bus drivers saved many

• There were nearly 3,000 students and staff in Bacha Khan University at the time of the terror attack,besides about 600 guests. They had gathered onthe campus for a poetry recital to commemoratethe anniversary of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan,popularly known as Bacha Khan
• Ayat Ibrahim, a student, said she was stunned by the attack but did what many other students did at thespur of the moment — she ran towards the universitybuses parked in the vicinity. As the buses began tofill up, the drivers drove away out of the campus attop speed, saving numerous lives

Vice-Admiral HCS Bisht

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, February 23

An former cadet of Sainik School, Ghorakhal, Vice-Admiral HCS Bisht, has been appointed the new Flag Officer Commanding In Chief (FOC-in C), Eastern Naval Command. Bisht spent his formative years in the school from 1967 to 1973.The Vice-Admiral was an alumnus of the National Defence Academy, Khadakvasla, Pune, and the Naval Academy, Kochi. He was commissioned in the executive branch of the Indian Navy on July 1, 1979, and is a gunnery specialist.He is a graduate of the 1992 batch of the Royal Naval Staff College, Greenwich (UK). He also attended the Naval Higher Command Course at the College of Naval Warfare, Karanja, Mumbai, in 2001 and completed the 47th NDC course in New Delhi in 2007.Vice-Admiral Bisht has held numerous important afloat, training and staff appointments which includes commissioning Commanding Officer of the Missile Corvette INS Kora, Commanding Officer of the Stealth Frigate, INS Tabar, and DA at the High Commission of India, Singapore. He is the submarine operating authority under whom Commodore Commanding Submarines (East) operate.Captain Rohit Dwivedi, Principal of Sainik School, Ghorakhal, complimented the Vice-Admiral on this prestigious appointment. He said it was a matter of pride not only for the school but also for the state. He added he was confident that the Vice-Admiral’s achievements would serve as a source of inspiration to the cadets.

Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw, once said, “If a man says he is not afraid of dying, he is either lying or is a Gurkha.”

His statement has withstood the test of time. The Gorkha regiment continues to be one of the most decorated of Indian Army units.

The Gorkhas may have made a name for themselves as fearless warriors but there’s one weapon in their armoury that’s as famous – if not more – than the soldiers who carry it.

‘s the Khukri. And, the Gorkhas evolved its handling into an art, even better, into a dance form.

Watch the amazing video:

https://youtu.be/77L7SbX2aGA

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Vijay Mohan,Tribune News Service,Chandigarh, February 1

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar has directed all wings of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to submit an Action Taken Report (ATR) by February 15 on the steps or initiatives taken by them on the recommendations of a committee of experts constituted to help improve service conditions of armed forces personnel.The directions were issued a few days ago, sources in the MoD said. The 5-member committee had presented its report to Parrikar on November 24 last.The 509-page report contains as many as 75 recommendations that touch upon various aspects of pension and service matters, discipline and vigilance, promotion issues, military justice reform, issues concerning civil employees and areas of potential disputes and litigation.The committee was constituted on the directions of the defence minister and was claimed to be the first ever exercise aimed at strengthening institutional mechanisms related to grievance redressal. It explores upon administrative, legal, psychological and even social aspects of military life.Prominent among the committee’s recommendations is greater personal interaction and opportunity of hearing in the system of formal complaints and petitions so as to give a better role to human interaction rather than the one-way noting sheet method and to assist in providing outlet and catharsis to individuals related to their grievances.An innovative aspect propagated greater constructive usage of social media, including initiation of blogs by senior commanders, to promote an interactive process with the rank and file. A face-to-face ‘collegiate’ system of decision-making in various aspects rather than the file circulation method as been suggested along with more transparency in matters related to promotions and confidential reports.Recommendations on military justice reform include steps that can be taken without any legislative change such as introduction of permanent infrastructure for Courts Martial at specified stations to reduce ad hocism and reduction of command influence.