Imphal, October 19

In a move to strengthen bilateral ties, the Indian Army has handed over 15 trained horses to its Myanmarese counterpart at a ceremonial function at Moreh town in Manipur’s Tengnoupal district, along the India-Myanmar border, an official release said.

The ceremony, organised by the Assam Rifles on Thursday, was aimed at enhancing “mutual trust and bonding between the armies” of the two Asian neighbours, the release issued by the paramilitary force said. The horses, which reached Moreh town on Wednesday from Hempur in Uttarakhand, were selected by a Myanmarese delegation during their visit to Remount Training School and Remount Veterinary Corps in the northern state in September. They were “provided on sale to the Myanmar army as part of defence foreign co-operation measures” between the two nations, the release said.

The Hempur establishment has a “rich experience of 240 years” in breeding and training of horses and dogs for the Army and its counterparts  in other countries. — PTI

The new Assembly is a motley crowd. It includes an ex-President, ex-PMs, seasoned Speakers, Punjabis with ambition, Sindhis with demands, Baluchis with recriminations and Pakhtuns with hopes

Tribune News Service

Jammu, October 18

Lt Gen Paramjit Singh, General Officer Commanding, White Knight Corps, visited the Surankote sector and the Counter Insurgency Force (Romeo) at Palma on Thursday.

During the visit to the Counter Insurgency Force headquarters, The General was briefed on the prevailing the security situation and the conduct of the recently held urban local bodies elections in the region and the forthcoming panchayat polls.

He was also briefed on the actions being taken to ensure a robust counter-terrorist grid to enable continued peace and stability in the region.

The General complimented the troops for ensuring the situation remains stable and lauded the local population, especially the Gujjar abd Bakerwal community, for their support in bringing peace to the region. He appreciated the civil administration and other security forces for their synergised efforts, which resulted in the successful conduct of the urban local bodies elections.

The General also interacted with soldiers and complimented them for displaying high standard of professionalism. He was appreciative of the measures and the standard operating procedures instituted by the units and formations in their area of responsibility and for the conduct of operations without causing inconvenience to the locals.

Tribune News Service

Mandi, August 11

An Indian Air Force car-cum-bike rally for Swachh Bharat Abhiyan reached Manali on Saturday.Participants of the rally also distributed dustbins and pamphlets to people to encourage them for cleanliness.The rally is being headed by Air Vice-Marshal AK Singh. He said the rally began from Delhi via Manali to Leh and Thoise on August 10, which will culminate on August 24. During that period, it will cover 2,372-km distance.He said the objective of the rally was to promote the Prime Minister’s noble mission of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. It aimed at spreading awareness among tourists and locals to maintain cleanliness in the mountain and make these garbage-free zones.The team has planned to collect garbage for its disposal at the designated places. It is also planned to carry out cleanliness campaign at Leh and Thoise.

Sepoy Happy Singh of Ram Nagar Talwandi Sabo, Bathinda, Punjab.

Majid Jahangir
Tribune News Service
Srinagar, September 27

Two civilians, a soldier and three militants, including an SPO-turned-militant, were killed in Kashmir on Thursday.

Three encounters broke out in Anantnag, Srinagar and Budgam districts when security forces launched three separate operations in the wee hours of Thursday.

A civilian was killed at Noorbagh locality in Srinagar city, during a cordon and search operation which was launched following an input about the presence of militants.

The slain civilian was identified as Mohammad Saleem Malik. Security sources said they had an input about the presence of two militants in the area when the operation was launched.

Intense clashes erupted in the area and authorities suspended mobile internet in Srinagar to maintain law and order.

J&K Police blamed militants for the death of Malik.

“…The hiding terrorists fired indiscriminately resulting in death of Saleem Malik,” a police spokesman said.  The operation was later called off.

In a separate gunfight, a soldier and a local militant were killed in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district that broke out on Thursday morning.

The gunfight broke at Gaksigund Dooru when the forces were carrying out a search operation in the area.

“In the gunfight, a Lashkar-e-Toiba militant commander and a soldier were killed,” police said.

Police identified the slain militant as Asif Malik.

“He was involved in several attacks on security forces including the killing of CRPF men at Achabal this year and in many other cases of civilian atrocities,” a police spokesman said.

The slain jawan was identified as 25-year-old Happy Singh of 19 Rashtriya Rifles and a resident of Talwandi Sabo in Bathinda.

Two local militants were killed and two soldiers were injured in another gunfight in Budgam district.

The two local militants were trapped in Panzan mosque during a cordon and a search operation. Special forces were deployed to flush out the militants.

“Security forces also appealed to the terrorists to come out.  However, the terrorists turned down the offer and consequently the operation had to be carried out in a deliberate manner keeping intact the sanctity of the mosque. In this operation, two terrorists were killed,” the spokesman said.

The two militants were identified as Sheeraz Ahmad Bhat of Kralwari Chadoora and Irfan Ahmad Dar of Kakapora Pulwama and the two were affiliated with  Hizbul Mujahideen.

Irfan Ahmad Dar was working as an SPO and had deserted a couple of months ago, the spokesman said.

Meanwhile, an unidentified man was killed in alleged Army firing in Kupwara district.

Police said the Army at around 2 am had laid an ambush at Rangward area of Kralpora when they noticed a man moving in the area who was challenged.

“He ran away and the Army fired at him. The man was injured and taken to hospital where he succumbed to his injuries on Thursday morning,” he said.

The identity of the slain youth could not be established. However, he does not appear to be a local.

A Srinagar-based defence spokesman said they were ascertaining the facts about the incident.

Shiv Kumar

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, August 11

The Maharashtra government has fast-tracked the setting up of a defence equipment manufacturing cluster at the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in the Multi-modal International Cargo Hub and Airport at Nagpur (MIHAN).

According to state government sources, the cluster which will generate 50,000 jobs have already drawn interest from prominent investors and defence contractors. Earlier this week, the government allotted 20 acres of land for the project. Officials said work on the project will begin immediately.

The Vidarbha Defence Industrial Hub, a special purpose vehicle will construct the manufacturing unit at sector 10 in MIHAN where the cluster is coming up, according to state government sources. The
initial investment involved has been estimated at around Rs 235 cr.

Tata Technologies Ltd, a Tata group company, which will be investing Rs 70 cr in a project here to impart skills to personnel who would be absorbed by micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

Imparting of specialized training for technicians who will be employed at the defence cluster has already begun and they will be absorbed when the first units are set up in a year’s time, according to
sources.

MIHAN is a mega industrial project spread over 4,300 hectares and was inaugurated 15 years ago.

A few defence and aviation-related industries are already located at MIHAN. Apart from Air India’s MRO and Reliance Dassault Aerospace Park, there are many smaller defence establishments here and the government is hopeful of attracting more companies in this field, officials said.

Dassault denied the allegation, saying the reference in the document was to the obligation to make offset investments in India and not the compulsion to get into a joint venture with Anil Ambani’s firm.

PARIS: 

Images of two trade union documents put up by the French blog Portail Aviation may add fodder to the political wrangling over the deal for 36 Rafale jets sealed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the French in 2016.

The images are of documents published by two unions of Rafale-maker Dassault – the CFDT and CGT. These are minutes of a meeting held on May 11 2017, in which the number 2 of Dassault Aviation, Loik Segalenn, is talking about the joint venture with Anil Ambani’s Reliance Defence.

The CGT statement says, “…a complete presentation of ‘Make in India’ with the creation of the enterprise ‘Dassault Reliance Aerospace’ at Nagpur was done for us”.

The blog does not interpret the documents and leaves it to readers to conclude whether or not Reliance was imposed on the French as a partner as a condition for the deal.

The CFDT’s document was mentioned earlier in a report by the French publication Mediapart just after former French President Francois Hollande’s explosive statement that France had no choice when it came to selecting Anil Ambani and his rookie company as offset partner for Dassault. According to Mediapart, an internal document of Dassault confirmed Mr Hollande’s statement.

Dassault denied the allegation, saying the reference in the document was to the obligation to make offset investments in India and not the compulsion to get into a joint venture with Anil Ambani’s Reliance Defence.

Details of the meeting appear to present a different picture.

The CGT statement says, “…a complete presentation of ‘Make in India’ with the creation of the enterprise ‘Dassault Reliance Aerospace’ at Nagpur was done for us. According to Mr (Loik) Segalen it was imperative and obligatory for Dassault Aviation to accept this “contrepartie” in order to obtain the export contract Rafale India.” The French word used is “contrepartie”, which can mean “compensation” or could have the negative sense of a “trade off”.

The second union (CFDT’s) statement talks about ‘Make in India’ being “the inevitable consequence” of the deal “imposed” by India, and says a joint venture with Reliance was created to attain this objective.

It is evident that the statements are not talking only about the offset obligation but also about the joint venture with Reliance. Whether the Reliance partnership was mandatory are among the questions raised by the opposition in India as well as a section of the French media.

The Congress has accused the government of corruption and crony capitalism. The party had seized on French president Hollande’s comment to Mediapart last month to go hammer and tongs against the government, alleging that Anil Ambani’s company was imposed as a preferred partner on the French.

https://www.ndtv.com/video/news/news/on-rafale-deal-new-documents-point-to-anil-ambani-firm-as-essential-496550

Tribune News Service

Shimla, August 5

The Anti-Terrorist Front will file a PIL in the Supreme Court to ascertain whether Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale is a martyr.ATF chief Veeresh Shandilya said politics was being done in the name of Bhindranwale. He said the ATF and the Shri Hindu Takht would file a PIL in the apex court to seek a clarification on the issue.He urged Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur to set up a museum in Shimla in memory of 52 Kargil martyrs from the state. He urged the government to provide a financial assistance of Rs 50 lakh to next of kin of martyrs and a government job to a dependent.Paying homage to Vijay Kumar from Bilaspur who was killed during an encounter with militants in Jammu and Kashmir, he said his widow should be appointed as a head constable with immediate effect.

https://www.ndtv.com/video/news/left-right-centre/hollande-claim-latest-in-chain-of-events-that-point-to-feku-government-arun-shourie-494615

Breaking | Indian Govt Proposed Anil Ambani For Rafale Deal : Francois Hollande, Ex French Prez

http://

 India Government Chose Anil Ambani For Rafale, Says Francois Hollande: 10 Facts

Former French President Francois Hollande has been quoted by an article on French website Mediapart as stating that the Indian government had asked the French government to nominate Anil Ambani’s Reliance Defence Industries as its India partner in the Rafale jet deal. The charge has been denied by the Defence Ministry.

Here are the top 10 developments on this big story:

Tribune News Service

Ropar, July 31

Ropar MP Prem Singh Chandumajra has said the Army’s proposed Selection Centre (North) would not be shifted from here to Jalandhar. Recently, media reports stated that the Army was mulling to shift the proposed centre to Jalandhar citing many reasons, including poor rail and road connectivity, lack of military hospital and no army unit in vicinity to provide inherent security to the centre.Chandumajra said Union Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had assured him that the centre would be set up at Ropar only.