Photo for representational purpose only. Thinkstock

Imphal, July 10

An Army jawan was on Monday found dead with bullet injury in Bishenpur district, the police said.

The jawan was identified as 37-year-old Moirangthem Herachandra. His body was found in a canal located at the vicinity of Nachau and Kwaksiphai in Bishenpur district by the locals who informed the police.

The body had a bullet injury on the forehead, said a senior police officer.

The police said Herachandra was posted at Chandel district and was currently on leave. PTI

Indian and Chinese troops have prepared for long haul at Doklam. File

Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 10

As Indian and Chinese troops dig in for a long haul at the 10,000-ft-high Doklam plateau in Bhutan, defence experts say the resolution of past such standoffs was possible only after forces of both sides carried out simultaneous withdrawal from disputed areas along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).An agreement to withdraw forces simultaneously from the disputed site was the only option left to defuse the crisis, said a top functionary. (Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)The area is disputed at the tri-junction of India, China and Bhutan and as per existing agreements, tri-junctions cannot be disturbed till all three parties agree. In 2013, 2014 and 2015, all three standoffs in Ladakh and the one in Anjaw (Arunachal Pradesh) were resolved through simultaneous withdrawal of troops. In the past three decades, peace treaties have kept sanity along the 3,488-km LAC. There have been a series of agreements that dictate the conduct of soldiers and also how a high-powered committee with members of both sides would sort out matters.Each year, troops of either side come face to face many times while patrolling along disputed areas. As per an agreement inked in 2005, troops are supposed to back off from the positions of patrolling. This is done after troops of either side show a banner asking the other to back off as per the “protocol on modalities for implementation of confidence-building measures in the military field along the LAC”. The mandate of the agreement is: “Throughout the face-to-face situation, neither side shall use force or threaten to use force against the other.” It also calls upon both the sides to stop their activities in the area and not advance any further. They have to return to their respective bases after the banner drill. It is only after this mechanism fails and troops don’t withdraw that the situation is called a standoff, as in the present case.

Lieutenant General PC Thimmaya

Bathinda, July 5

Lieutenant General PC Thimmaya took over the command of Chetak Corps from Lieutenant General Ashwani Kumar at a solemn military ceremony.A Mechanised Infantry Officer, commissioned in 1981, he has varied experiences at the Western and Eastern fronts. Besides commanding a Mechanised Infantry Brigade, he has commanded a strike RAPID division and has held important staff appointments at Integrated HQ of MoD (Army).He has also been a military observer with UN mission (Angola) and Defence Attache in Bangladesh.— TNS

ISRO’s PSLV C38, carrying Cartosat-2 Series and 30 other satellites, lifts off Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota on Friday. PTI

Sriharikota (AP), June 23

India today successfully put into orbit a satellite that will boost its military surveillance capabilities along with 30 other tiny satellites — all but one of them foreign — from a single rocket in yet another milestone for its low-cost space programme.The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C38) of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in its 40th flight lifted off the first launch pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre at 9.29 am and injected the 31 satellites into orbit 27 minutes after lift-off, amid applause from scientists.Dubbed as a “smart eye in the sky”, the 712-kg Cartosat-2 series earth observation spacecraft launched by the 44.4 metre-tall rocket as its primary payload is an advanced remote sensing satellite that is expected to give defence surveillance a leg-up. The 31 satellites together weighed 955 kg.Today’s mission was the second highest number of satellites to be launched by the ISRO using a single rocket. On February 15, the PSLV-C37 mission scripted history by launching 104 satellites into orbit at one go. Of these, 101 satellites were from foreign countries.With the launch of the third spacecraft in the Cartosat-2 series, the images sent by the dedicated satellite for defence forces are expected to become sharper and wider. The previous satellite in the series had a resolution of up to 0.8 metres and the images it took over India’s neighbourhood had helped carry out surgical strikes on terror launch pads across the LoC last year, said ISRO sources. — PTI

The payload

• At 712-kg, Cartosat-2 is an advanced remote sensing satellite with a resolution of up to 0.6 m. The previous satellite in the series had a resolution of up to 0.8 m and was used by defence forces during surgical strikes across the LoC last year
• NIUSAT, a nano-satellite developed by Noorul Islam University in Tamil Nadu, will provide multi-spectral imagery for agricultural crop monitoring and disaster management support applications
• The other 29 nano-satellites put into the orbit are from 14 countries, including France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US

WHY INDIA, PAK DON’T TALK TO EACH OTHER BY MAJ GEN ASHOK K. MEHTA (RETD)

DAGSHAI SCHOOL BOY TOPS STATE IN NDA EXAM

LOCKHEED MARTIN SIGNS PACT WITH TATA TO MAKE F-16 PLANES IN INDIA

REVISE BIASED PROMOTION POLICY FOR MAJ GENS: AFT

WALKING WITH THE MARTYRS HARISH KHARE

OPINION: ARMY CHIEF BIPIN RAWAT SHOULD KNOW THAT INDIA IS NOT PREPARED FOR A TWO-FRONT WAR

BATCHMATES REMEMBER OF IAF’S LONE PARAM VIR CHAKRA AWARDEE RECALL HIS VALOUR

FAUJI CM OF PB CAPT AMARINDER SINGH HONORS HIS WORDS ,FARMERS LOAN WAVED WITHIN 100 DAYS :UNLIKE OROP 100 DAYS

1. SMALL AND MARGINAL FARMERS WITH LOANS UP TO ₹2 LAKH BIGGEST BENEFICIARIES; PLAN DOESN’T COVER LOANS EXTENDED BY ARHTIYAS
2. GIVE UP POWER SUBSIDY, CM TO RICH FARMERS
3. EMPTY TREASURY WORRIES CAPT GOVT
4. REVENUES MORTGAGED, PROPERTIES PLEDGED
5. GROWTH BELOW ALL-INDIA AVERAGE
6. Now, free education for girls from nursery to PhD
7. GOVT CLEARS GST

OTHERS

• Skills development university at Chamkaur Sahib, Ropar
• Wellness mohalla/ward clinics, health insurance for all
• Loan waiver up to Rs 50,000 for SCs/weaker sections
• New industrial hubs to come up in Sangrur and Khanna
• New Lokpal law to cover CM, ministers and bureaucrats
• Free textbooks for nursery & LKG students in govt schools

Cong now blames Centre for Rs 31,000-crore ‘food scam’

A Sikh delegation led by Gurinder Singh Khalsa with US Vice President Mike Pence in Indianapolis. PTI

Washington, June 18

US Vice President Mike Pence has lauded the Sikhs’ contribution, saying the community should continue to give back by serving in the military and public offices at local, state and federal levels.

Pence, 58, said the community’s “issues” were close to his heart and he was aware of them.

“Sikhs Community and its issues are always close to my heart and I always admire the contribution of Sikhs in Indiana and across the United States,” Pence told a Sikh delegation in Indianapolis.

“I am fully aware of Sikh awareness issues since me days as Governor,” Pence told Sikhs Political Action Committee (SikhsPAC) led by Gurinder Singh Khalsa.

Main topic of discussion with the delegation was Sikh awareness and introduction of Sikh History in public history curriculum through federal department of education.

During the meeting, Pence reaffirmed his commitment to Sikh community and encouraged it to continue to give back in the form of serving in the military and public offices at local, state and federal level, it said.

Early this week, Khalsa visited Washington DC and met about two dozen US Senator and Congressmen.

He also attended US Global Leadership Collision where about 500 world faith leaders, veterans and elected leaders participated to influence the American foreign aid policies.

Pence was the first sitting Governor who attended Sikh Parade and bestowed highest Civil award to a Sikh in 2015.

The US state of Indiana has passed a resolution recognising Sikhs’ “significant contributions” to America.

Hate-crime incidents against Sikhs have seen a spurt in in America recently.

A 39-year-old Sikh man was shot in the arm outside his home in Kent, Washington, in March by a partially-masked gunman who shouted “go back to your own country”.

Earlier, Indian-origin convenience store owner Harnish Patel, 43, of Lancaster in South Carolina was found dead of gunshot wounds in his yard in the same month. —PTI

Naik Bakhtawar Singh

Jammu/Rajouri, June 16

With Pakistan continuing to violate the ceasefire along the the Line of Control (LoC), another Army jawan, Naik Bakhtawar Singh, was today killed while guarding a forward post in Upper Kalsian, Nowshera sector.He received multiple splinter injuries when a mortar shell fired by the Pakistani army exploded near him. Bakhtawar Singh (34), who hailed from Hajipur village in Hoshiarpur district of Punjab, is survived by his wife Jasbir Kaur and three children — a son aged 11 years, a nine-year-old daughter and another 10-month-old son.He is the third soldier to have been killed at the LoC since May 1.“The Pakistan army initiated unprovoked firing at 5.15 am. The Indian Army retaliated strongly and effectively but in the exchange of fire, Naik Bakhtawar Singh was grievously injured. He succumbed to his injuries later,” said the Defence PRO. — TNS

The IS claimed that it killed two abducted Chinese nationals in Pakistan. —AFP

Beijing, June 10

In a rare snub to all-weather ally Pakistan, Chinese President Xi Jinping skipped a customary meeting with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif at the SCO summit in Astana after the murder of two Chinese teachers in Balochistan.Sharif returned from Astana after attending the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit on the sidelines of which he met Presidents of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan and Russia.Also read: IS claims it killed two Chinese kidnapped from BalochistanConspicuously absent was a meeting with Xi.Chinese state-run media highlighted Xi’s meetings with Kazakh counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin.Xi’s unprecedented snub followed deep disappointment and grief among Chinese public over the slaying of the two Chinese citizens who were kidnapped last month from Quetta in Balochistan.The two were brutally murdered reportedly by Islamic State (IS) militants. The news of their murders was made public ahead of the SCO summit held on June 8-9 in which India and Pakistan were admitted as members.Yesterday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying explained that the murders were no way connected to the US$ 50 billion China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which was opposed by the Baloch nationalists.The CPEC is part of China’s ambitious multi-billion Belt and Road intuitive (BRI).”This incident will not have any necessary connection with the BRI,” nor with the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, meeting being held in Astana, Hua had said.China has deployed hundreds of Chinese workers to work for the CPEC which connects Gwadar port in Balochistan with China’s Xinjiang through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.Hua said Pakistan pays great attention to the protection of Chinese citizens in the institutions there and made great efforts for their security.”As per BRI we should be prepared for risks if want to go global. Since the three years after the BRI,” she had said.